Hey people, Well, what a week!!
I think the best part of being here is meeting people from all over the world.
Oh Indepedance day was interesting …. I went to the place where Gandhi's wife died. But, the highlight of the day was receiving a message from my friend in Mumbai saying - 'Happy Independence Day - We sure kicked some English B+tt', oh and the other classic was ' You british killed my brothers and sisters'. Well, I get that a lot with my friends, we do have our friendly arguments about the India versus England thing.
Anyways, the recruitment is seriously hard work, and my accent doesn't help. LOL. Its so draining because several of the candidates don't understand me, so I have to repeat what I say several times, but also attempt to say the same thing in many ways - until they understand. You know you are failing though when you say - 'So, can you describe your current role?', and they just say - 'Ok Ma'am, Yes Ma'am, Ok Ma'am', and then that’s the end of the conversation!! (Right - so you never understood me, you just think that if you say ok, and yes - I'll be fine!!!). Aahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! …. Man my head hurts!!
Well, the real estate is booming here big time. There are new complexes being built everywhere, and the prices are rising like mad, and in many cases the rates are similar to the west. Its interesting when you speak to people who have lived in Pune all their life, and they just see the city turning into a concrete jungle with appartment blocks, business parks …. But the demand is obviously shooting up fast, and the growth in the country is incredible. Many of the shopping Malls, have the high street shops we are used to like - Mango, M&S, La Senza, Levi, Morgan, Apple etc.
But, it always seems that they never plan …. Hence the infrastructure (roads, electricity, water etc) here is awful, and is not really coping with the increased demands. I suppose a good illustration of the indian approach is - traffic jams, you get them everywhere, people driving at each other from all angles, then they get into a mess, and people instead of slowing down to let the situation sort out, they just decide that they will also drive in because surely they wont get stuck in it!!! Yeah right - then obviously the horns start …. And no one can move anywhere …….. Its mad!! Its very much, I won't think, right up until the point I have to …….. By the way, if you decide to use your initiative and not drive straight into a car that is already squashed between 5 other cars, then you will regret it - because you are not doing it right - just drive right to his bumper anyways …. Whats wrong with a 6th car joining in. Remember - we stick together in India!!! Ha ha ha
Well, I was invited to my first work party - dinner, drinks, music and dance (and yes the indians are not shy in that way). But, hey I didn't really gate-crash, besides I even offered to give a presentation to them about me, my role and the UK side of things. I'm not sure how I managed to get myself into that one. I think there are approx. 150 -200 people working in that particular dept, but me being the performer, I managed to get quite a decent audience reaction. Although I did start the presentation by saying, 'Hi, apologises if you don't understand my accent, but I've had quite a mad day explaining things to candidates over and over again, so if you need me to repeat anything then please put your hand up, and I'll beat you up afterwards'. LOL. I did boast about how good we are at in the UK. Ha ha ha …… but it did go very well, and it was a very effective way to introduce myself to so many people in one go …. So I had quite a lot of them talking to me afterwards, interested in more detail.
But, the weekend …… was stressful, and a little upsetting. I went to mumbai, and someone stole my new Nokia N95 mobile phone. They didn't take the rubbish work phone I have … obviously. But, I've lost all the numbers for all my friends and families around the world. So, I was really stressed and I couldn't get hold of anyone in the UK, and obviously it’s the personal side of things (all my phone numbers, friend's details, pictures, videos, birthdays etc) that is very upsetting. So, I was in panic mode (most probably because I'm in a different country)…. I eventually got through to Orange UK to cancel my simcard and blacklist my phone, but I can't really do anything more until I get back to the UK now. So, I had to visit an Indian police station to report my phone as stolen for insurance purposes (although not sure if it covers international). The police station was an experience, my friend told me to be strong and not get intimidated by them. Well, after the mood I was in, if they said anything to me, I was ready to give them a few black eyes. It was very much like the movies, the police just sit back, chilled out, and bribing is the thing. Well, this weird looking police man, told me to take a seat and relax while he just cruises along doing his job …. At that point I was ready to give him a punch and say ' Will you just F++kin get on with it - u idiot'. As you can see, I'm still not over it just yet!!!.
Of course, Saturday just wasn't my day ….. Following this, my bank declined all my ATM and credit card transactions. So, I had to, for the first time in my life, walk out of a shop because I didn't have any money to pay for the goods. So, as usual … the bank thought it was fraud, and for security reasons stopped the use of my cards. At least they do their job right. Oh and to top it up, the hotel refused to check me in, because I left my passport in Pune, and it is against the law to let a guest from another country stay in your hotel, without their passport details ….. Of course I know that - but I forget to carry it with me. So, that was just great!! Well, luckily I have friends in mumbai ….. So I didn't sleep on the roads along with half the other population of the city.
So, Saturday night ended with lots and lots and lots of Barcardi ….. I nearly did them all neat!!!
Back to the drawing board now!!!
Bindi.
