Well, my first week in India was officially over yesterday.  We've had some issues with our development servers all week that we hope to have finally fixed today sometime (CST) Needless to say I was very busy this week on the MindTree Campus.. from talking with them over various issues, closing out requests, getting access for testing besides other things. I hope the coming week will be less stressful... I had been puting in dual shifts on most of the weekdays.

I'm going to post a few of the pictures I have taken... I have to apologize that i haven't taken that many.. around here if they see a person with a camera... well. they flock to you offering you anything from coconut milk, and autorickshaw taxi, or street vendor bananas.

Here are some pictures of my room in New Dehli for my layover... it's one of those rooms.. you just don't want to sleep in... and i'm hoping the red stuff on the wall was just paint. (For all pictures click the image for a bigger version)

Next is a picture of my room I'm staying in.  It's really enjoyable, the bed isn't the best but the overall room quality is nice. Not to mention the service of the staff. One thing in India they really do like the US and they have done anything to please me, from putting fresh fruit in the room to doing my laundry it's all top notch.

Finally, here are some initial pictures of the traffic.  Words cannot describe the traffic here except no rules bigger car or truck wins. Also of note the horn is used for everything from letting people know you're there.. to move over.. to i'm making a turn.. to hey i'm changing the channel on my radio. You just have to get used to it.

Things I've found interesting on my travels to and from MindTree

• People washing clothes on the concrete on the side of the road
• The wild horns some of the two ton trucks have
• There are no walmart type places.. just small open stores that sell various goods right next the road from fish lying on ice to gumdrops
• Every bus, car, rickshaw, scooter, motorcycle, or bus is packed with people to the point of overflowing.. i saw the train go by the other morning on my way in and people were actually hanging on to the side of the train.
• They still use Oxen, Donkeys, and horses to pull some of their carts.. all of the Oxen usually have bright things on their horns... as decoration
• The roads are terrible... and that's being kind
• The rivers are VERY polluted here, and i saw families washing themselves in it.. even the drain water... scary
• They have Hindu shrines all over the place.. and they cause traffic nightmares.. it took me 2 hours one night to get home because of one of these festivals
• Saw people living in tents.. some using candles to heat food.. sad
• I'm going to try and take a picture of the bright flowers the ox cars bring to market.. it's sooooo bright.. it's amazing
• Trees... there are trees everywhere.. it's called the Garden City.. my driver took me through a park.. and it was amazing.. saw real bamboo stalks growing.. they were huge!
• It's amazing some buildings are ultramodern.. like MindTree, Intel, and AMD.. but right next to them it looks like the building has been bombed out... just weird to see that
• Do It Yourself Home Electricity.. the infrastructure here is taxed... as rolling blackouts happen daily.. even here at the hotel.. if you go down a road.. you'll see all these wires people have ran themselves to get electricity...
• Lots of petrol stations.. but no petrol.. you'll see people going from one station to the next trying to find petrol (Gas).. they have shortages here bigtime
• Overstacked.. every truck, rickshaw, or animal drawn cart is overladen with merchandise or products.. to the point of tipping over
• Hawks.. you'll see giant birds just chill'n flying around the city. since the markets to get food are open.. they have a field day finding food
• Advertising.. it's everywhere.. walls, cars, poles, backs of cars... front of cars... on banners, on the backs of jackets... on scooters.. everywhere you look there are advertisments

Overall the people are very poor but very nice. They really cherish western culture and are super friendly to me... they ask me where i'm from, when I say the United States, every single one I've met have said.. what a great country.. i wish we could go there some day... you have freedoms that we can only wish for... One a side note.. they have freedom here but what they mean is that the caste system is still here and it really hurts people as they can't achieve a higher standard of living just because they were born to a lower caste... really sad