India: Day 3 – The Office
Penguin August 24th, 2007
Breakfast
I woke up fairly early. It was a combination jetlag, heat and humidity. We finished off our morning routine with a lot of time to spare, so we headed to the market.
This time, we actually looked at the items that were being offered. Potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, and a few other vegetables. We also saw a small South Indian Food shop making, what we thought was naan. We got the man’s attention and ordered two. Not knowing how much it would be.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that he was slightly frying them. In addition to the flat bread, we got this soup of potatoes and other vegetables. Mean while, Wenhai went to a small grocery to pick up some “Digestive Bisquits” and 5 eggs.
When we got back home, we found the flat bread we had purchased were scallion pancakes! Awesome! We boiled up the eggs and they were delicious. We felt like kings.
Eventually, the van arrived with the girls. we just couldn’t contain how happy we were about our breakfast and had to share the experience, to their chagrin, with them.
Not in Kolkata Anymore
As we ventured out to the office. We noticed that the congestion gave way to open stretches of road. This was the first time we didn’t see another car for several minutes. Even at night, the streets of Kolkata were still teaming with van rickshaws and auto rickshaws.
The shops that normally lined the street gave way to fields of rice and small huts. This eventually gave way to dense forests. the road narrowed considerably as we got deeper.
It was a really nice departure to be outside of the city. Away from the incesant honking of cars and barking of dogs. In some ways, it felt even simpler than the simple life that we were experiencing in Kolkata.
The Office
We arrived at a small two story building nestled deep in the forest. This was the office we’d be working at for the next two weeks.
The previous night, we had talked about what we would be doing for lunch. We asked if there were any places near the office we would be able to eat at. Now seeing it, we realized how far from everything it was. There were probably some street vendors around, but nothing that would provide us with a real meal. So for lunch, we had the driver get take out from Penguin Inn, which was 30 minutes away.
At the office, we were greeted by the staff. It was kind of awkward walking past them and the gesture of welcome that they showed us. We went to the second floor where we saw a long table with six chairs. It was pretty obvious that this was for us. Behind us followed the staff.
We stood at our chairs in awkward silence, looking at the staff who stood there silently. For serveral minutes, we weren’t sure what we were supposed to do. Eventually, Hamadri arrived.
He formally welcomed and thanked us for giving our time and coming to Kolkata to serve CSS. The presented us with flowers and a booklet about CSS. Each staff member introduced themselves to each of us in turn. As a gusture of thanks for having us, we presented them a box of Belguim chocolates Emmy had picked up in Brussels. We got to the office around 10. It was 11 when the welcome ceremony ended.
We sat down and began discussing the plan for the day and for the week.
Hamadri was going to try and get Technosoft, the developers of the software, to come and demo their work for us and be available for any of our questions. Technosoft was afraid because we were essentially here to audit their work. They didn’t understand that we were here to help them help CSS serve the community. If that meant pointing out all the faults and problems with the system, then that’s what it would take.
There were a bevy of problems with the system. Technosoft was insistant that SQL Server would be a panacea. But I knew that the reality was that SQL Server would only solve some of the problems.
It was a little frustrating discussing the problems that CSS were having. Before we could clarify our understanding with some questions, Hamadri would move on to a different subject.
During lunch, the power went out. Luckily, CSS had a backup generator. The problem was, the power inverter they had could only hold a load for about 4 hours. Hopefully, we’d be able to get some stuff done in time.
Technosoft’s Black Box
After lunch, we went down stairs to see their computer set up. Although all the machines had USB ports, they were all running Win98, so they couldn’t recognize the USB drive as a mass storage device. If we wanted to get any reasonable amount of work done, we needed to have the files on our computers. They did have a CD burner, but it would take 20 minutes to burn the CD. If we wanted to keep transfering a lot of things, we would be there all day just burning through CDs. The best choice was to try and get on their network.
While we were working, the rest of the team had an opportunity to go to a field office and meet with some actual clients.
We tried Karen’s machine. Even though it could get on the network, it couldn’t access the share drives. For some reason, my machine could. We pulled the latest database and all the requisite files.
One problem they had, was accounts that had balance due values that were negative. This couldn’t be possible, because it meant that CSS owed the client money.
After a bit of digging through the database, we learned a lot about the process and where data was changing and where it was coming from. We eventually discovered that every year, technosoft gets a copy of the database and does some sort of conversion on it. During this process, all the loan amounts are set to 0, the outstanding loan amount is calculated based on all the receipts that they had received. Why they did this, was beyond us. It wasn’t even clear what exactly was happening. I surmised that it was during this process, that the data was changing and something was getting messed up.
Club
We had been working for several hours already. I started feeling a little sick to the stomach. I went outside to get some air and felt like I was going to throw up. When I left the office, I passed the backup generator. The room we were working in was pretty close, so I figured the fumes were getting to me.
While I was walking around, I met a young man. He knew a bit of English, but his accent was so heavy, my only response was blank looks. I don’t think it helped that I tried repeating what he was saying.
In an effort to connect, I started pointing to random objects, and said their name in English, then said “Bengali”. I think it was clear that I had told him what the item’s name was in English. He would then respond with the Bengali name for the object.
It took several minutes, but I learned, naal gotch (coconut tree), ahm gotch (mango tree), kal gotch (banana tree). Amazing!
We went back to the street and he wanted to take me to Club. It was the small building on the side of the road. Music emenated from the darkness inside the building.
Club consisted of a TV which played Indian music videos. The crowd was made of tired men. some slept on the floor, others slept in the corner. Then there were those sitting in chairs.
It was actually quite relaxing and I felt honored that they welcomed me into their club. Over the entrance was painted “Only Members”. So I guess I was now a member!
The rest of the team had returned and we relayed to each other what we had learned and experienced. I was proud to show off my membership to Club and invited everyone in.
This was one of the hottest and most humid days yet. Everything I had was wet from the humidity.
The airline had found Emmy’s luggage, so Wenhai accompanied her to the airport to retrieve it. We had about two hours to kill before they returned.
We arrived at the girls’ place and were in heaven. The cool dry environment of the AC was magnificent.
While we were waiting for dinner, I showed the girls Typing of the Dead. Michelle instantly fell in love with the game and “had to have it”. When I showed Alice the game, she was shocked and horrified at the gruesome visuals of zombies and blood. But it wasn’t long before she was addicted to the game. Meanwhile, I taught Karen how to play Big 2. I figured, this would be valuable later on.
Several hours later, Emmy and Wenhai returned. Michelle was tired, so she had already gone to bed. Emmy wasn’t feeling well earlier in the day, so she turned in as well. The rest of us went for dinner at… Penguin Inn! Again!
Ice Cream for Dinner
Most of us weren’t that hungry. It might have been the heat or the late lunch, but we all ended up having soup. Most of us ordered a mock-tail, a cool concoction of fruit juice and ice cream. The guy kind of looked at us funny when that’s all we had for dinner. It was nice. A simple and relaxing time.
Am I Getting Sick?
When I had come out of the girls’ place, my nose started running. By the time I got back to the apartment, I was sneezing like crazy. I don’t know if I was just allergic to something, but I knew I couldn’t just suck in the snot. I had blown my nose earlier in the day and saw that it was all black from the soot and dirt that was in the air. I had probably breathed enough of it in that I didn’t need to take it down with my mucous either.
It was still early, a little before 10. I took a shower and felt a little better, but I didn’t want to risk it. I popped a Unisom and went to bed.
Black Mail Time
Before turning in, I had the unique opportunity to witness one of the funniest spectacles. W e n h a I, in nothing but boxers, socks, and sneakers, jump roping with the his Blackberry charger to the music of his ring tones. This was definitely a sight. If I were a cruel man, I would have taken pictures and plastered them all over the internet. Instead, I’ll leave the visuals to your imagination.
-Penguin
Related posts
