Getting Internet Connection in India

Today, finally the Internet is working in the room 19 (means my & Marieke`s room). Let me describe the procedure from the beginning until now.
On wednesday I called up the guy from the Youtele.com. Unfurtunately, wednesday was his day off. Next day I called him again and he promised to come at 7 o`clock. Yes, he did come with another guy. On the phone we did talk to a third guy because these two were not able to decribe everything in English properly. We did pay the pre-payment, installation & modem bill and we were told that the next day someone is coming to do the installation job. Next morning Marieke got the call in concern that the Internat guy is not coming and he will come on Saturday at 10 AM. We did wake up by 10 AM as the person might come. Only around 3 PM he was here, in between I did many calls to the service provider and every time he promised the guy to come in one or half an hour. Anyway, this person drew only the cable. He did nothing else than drawing the cable from outside into our room. He was saying that an other person has to come to set up the modem.
While calling the service centre again, they promised to send the person with the modem the next day. Of course I was waiting again many hours that guy to come. Now everything is finally done! :)

This was an example how things work in India. Many people are involved in one task. Everyone has their own part in the completion of job. And everything takes time, a lot of time. Time management is very poor. If they agree the time for 10 AM, then it might turn into 4 PM. And you waste the whole day for waiting.

One of the reasons of splitting the task is creation of more jobs. India needs many new jobs. There are many people to help to rise up, especially in the villages. Still this justification is not enough. Better workforce managemet can lead India to the economical prosperity.

First impression about India

By now I have been in India for 2 weeks already. The time here passes by really fast. Anyway... lets start from the beginning...

My trip to India started on the 28th of Oct about 5 AM. After a long car & bus trip I reached Tallinn. The next destination was Helsinki where I reached by cruise ship Baltic Princess. From that point foward I was not alone any more as I met Estonian trainee Killu who I came to India together with. From Helsinki airport we had our flight for 6-7 hours. The plane landed in Delhi about 6 AM (29th Oct). Some AIESECers were supposed to pick us up from the airport but we could see none. So we kept waiting inside the airport. We observed the people and tried to figure out who is the person responsible to meet us at the airport. After 2 hours I got a call that someone is waiting for us outside the airport. We went out and saw Yatin. He has been waiting for us outside the airport for 2 hours.. a bit stupid situation as we both were waiting. Waiting inside the airport was rather funny for me and Killu. If I had been alone waiting there... it would not have been funny at all...

The first day Yatin helped me and Killu with establishing in India. I had my home stay at his place as well. Indian hospitality is really huge. If you are a guest they do take a lot of care for you. They keep on serving some food even if you are already full. That time when I arrived to India the weather was quite hot. And of course you dont need that much food when it is hot. Just water. I was taken to some places in South Delhi. It was a Diwaly period (a holiday in India that is as important as Christmas for us). The streets were bedighted with lights and some kind of decoration. One could see fireworks outside.

The same day I met two more trinees who just arrived - Marieke from Netherlands and Sunny from Hong Kong. All 3 of us are working in the same company.

During the night me, Yatin`s brother and his friend Sagar explored the night life in Delhi. There were some nice pubs but they were about to close quite early. Later I was experiencing some really crazy driving.. about 120 km/h on the roads of Delhi.

The next day I was dropped to Gurgaon. It is a sattelite city of Delhi which is about 20-30 min away from capital. Many bussinesses have their offices here, it is a big agglomerate of office buildings. There were nothing about 5 years ago. It was a plain landscape and some kind of fights were held here. Now some say this city is the fastest growing city in the world. Officially the population of Gurgaon was ~200 000 in 2001. The unofficial number might be around one million by now. The city is really dusty. You will never see a blue sky and yellow sun. This is hidden by dust. There is a lot of contrast in Gurgaon. Beautiful towers and slums. Rich and poor. Nice cars and cows.

I am living at U-59. It is a trainee house in DLF phase 3. I am sharing a room with Marieke. We have a medium sized room with a kitchen, bathroom and balcony. In the beginning I was afraid of cockroaches in our room. I started a strategy of touching them and now I am absolutely fine with cockroaches.

There are more trainees at U-59. The Polish people are dominating (btw tonight we are having a Polish independence party at the rooftop). Some Indians are also living there. The rooftop is a commonly known place for parties or just for gathering. U-59 is here as a big family.. together you go out for a dinner, cook a meal, party, travel...

There is no India without Indian food. Before coming here I was kind of worried about the food here as it is spicy. But now I really like it. Dal makhani, paneer, nan, chabati (last two are breads) - these are really good. And the food is not hot spicy, it is just normally spiced. Anyway if you dont like Indian food you have here McDonalds, Pizza Hut, chinese food etc. You can find everything! Okay... maybe not Estonian black bread.. but you cannot find it in Europe as well.

The weather here right now is perfect. It is not that hot and still not cold. I am walking along the streets without any jacket. Soon it is gonna be colder and I need some warm cloths to buy.

I am already working in the office (right now I am there) but I will make a post about my work the next time. Tomorrow we are having a family day at our company. So everyone brings their family along to some place in the countryside.

Lets enjoy the weekend now!