Day 5 - The Neverending Dinner

The work weeks are tough to deal with. Right after work at around 5:30am, the Indian team usually goes to sleep since all their family is also sleeping when they get home. After they get their 7-8 hours of sleep, they wake up and run errands, eat, or do normal daily tasks that we Americans probably do after work. Then after dinner, they head to work, when they aren't the most refreshed from a full night of sleep. I finally experienced this today, and boy was it tough to finish the work day today.

Still trying to adjust to the difference in schedules, I woke up around 11AM, getting about 5 hours of sleep. I spent the next couple of hours working and surfing the web. At around 4:30pm, my colleague picked me up so I could meet with the rest of my Accounting team for a dinner prior to work. We got there at around 5:30pm. Unfortunately, I came to town during a very important local election, which would occur tomorrow. Due to the importance of this election, alcohol was not served yesterday, today, and won't be served tomorrow. They declared it a dry day when we got to the restaurant - no beers or cocktails for me!

The dinner was a buffet, but it would only start at about 7:30pm when everything was set up. We ended up having some mocktails, sheesha, and pre-starters. The first question a waiter usually asks is "Veg or Non-Veg?" to accommodate for the strong practicing Hindu or more lax worshipper. Half of us decided on the Non-Veg while the other half opted for the Vegetarian option. While I was eating, I assumed the pre-starters were the appetizers, and the starters were the actual "buffet" we were paying for. I stuffed myself only to realize at 7:30pm that the real buffet started. Everything looked good, but unfortunately, I couldn't get myself to eat more than a couple bites of the actual meal.

Work was terribly difficult to get through, as we all had food coma by the time the shift started. I definitely caught a couple of my colleagues dozing off... I guess that's the difficulty of working a grave yard shift, here in India, and also anywhere else in the world. 

The Neverending Buffet with my colleagues

Lebanese Prawns

Vegetable Starters

Local Peanut Vendor

Local Fruit Vendors

Day 4 - Delhi to Dehradun

Since I got an abundance of sleep over the past few days, it was effortless for me to wake up at 7am in the morning, something I am not usually able to do during the week. The hotel provided a continental buffet of breakfast items from India as well as the West.

Afterwards, I headed to the Radisson hotel near the airport to have a short meeting with one of our Chartered Accountants for my company, who work on our India side of our business. Man, does it get confusing trying to learn about the India governmental restrictions on operating a business in the country! But I guess it would be the same for an Indian to learn about our procedures here in the USA.

My flight was soon after the meeting, and I headed to the airport to catch the flight to Dehradun. It took 30 minutes to fly to the city located north of Delhi. I arrived at the Jolly Grant airport, which was about 45 minutes drive away from the heart of Dehradun, or the "Doon Valley." My colleagues were there to greet me, and we drove through the only highway to reach the city. Along the way I saw a vast network of forests (or what they call 'jungles' in India).

We reached town where I had some South India cuisine, called Masala Dosa. It resembled a quesadilla, but with peas, potatoes, and spices mixed together to comprise the inside, instead of the cheese you would get in a quesadilla. It was a simple, but delicious first meal here.

I checked into my hotel at around 5PM, which was not very kempt, reminded me of my backpacking days... and three hours later, I was at work! My Indian counterparts work the night shift to allign with Los Angeles working times. Although I was tired from the travel and lack of sleep, the first working day was not to difficult to get accustomed to, probably because I was excited to meet everyone.

Touchdown Dehradun!

The Surya Namaskar - a series of yoga positions to salute the sun.

Masala Dosa, a South Indian dish.

My Accounting Team!