MphasiS Office

The blue building is where the MphasiS office is located. MphasiS has the entire seventh floor. The building is very nice and secure. I have to use my badge to enter the parking lot, use the elevator, and then to get access to the seventh floor. In addition to the electronic badge entry systems, there are one or two guards at each access point. The seventh floor has several sections and a badge is required to move from one section to another. I also have to enter a log to bring my laptop into the building and take it home.

There is a food court on the ground floor that is equal to any mall food court in the U.S. Mostly Indian food, but pizza is also available. There is also a snack bar on the seventh floor where free coffee is dispensed into little bitty cups.








This is the conference room where the POWRTRAK training is held. Everyone is on one side of the room so that they can see the projection. The team sits right outside this conference room in bull pen style cubes. i.e. four in a pen. They each have about as much space as the cubes in Overland Park, which is to say they don't have a lot of space.

Abdul

This is Abdul, my driver. Abdul speaks English as well as anyone that I've met so far, including my co-workers. Abdul has eight brothers and two sisters. He has an eighth grade education. Due to some problems, that he did not elaborate on, he had to quit school and go to work to help support his family.


Abdul takes me to work at aprox. 11:30 am, then he waits with the car until I am finished with work at aprox. 10:30 - 11:30 pm. This seems to be a common practice here. After Abdul drops me at the apartment, he leaves the car downstairs and catches a train or a bus home. He says the risk is to high for him to drive the car home. i.e. he would have to pay for damages if something happened to the car on his way home. He will return in the morning in time to wash the car before he takes me to work.


I read an article in the local paper, "The Hindu", that there is a high demand for drivers. Drivers are constantly switching jobs to get higher paying positions. A personal driver might make INR 8000 per month. That is approx. $200.

Apartment Complex

Pictures of the outside of the apartment.
The gentlemen in this picture is the doorman / night watchman. He sleeps on a mat on the ground right outside the elevator. He pitchs a masqueto net tent. The gates are locked at night. Often times when I come home from work, I have to wake him up to open the gate.


This is the only green space within the apartment complex.

Morning Walk

I took a walk yesterday morning. These pictures were all taken within a mile of my apartment.

I don't know what this is, but I've seen several of these display cases / alters. The construction shown on the next picture is directly behind this. As I walked, I discovered that this is the far corner of a huge complex. It is St Louis school for the blind and deaf.

This tennis court is directly across the street.

This guy setup shop just two buidings down the road.

Breakfast

While I'm on the subject of Shaji. This is the breakfast he fixed for me yesterday. I should have taken a picture of the first helping while the plate was clean and the glass full. I'm not sure what Shaji called this, but it was similar to an omelet with rice instead of eggs. It had tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms. The drink was like a smoothie with apple and milk. So far, I'm very happy with his cooking.

Last night, Shaji made tomato soup from fresh tomatoes. The second course was kabobs. Kabobs was some meet like substance rolled into a tube. Today, when I speak with someone whose English is better, I'll find out exactly what I was eating. He also prepared noodles with vegetables. Usually, I have left-overs for lunch the next day.

Shaji

This is Shaji. He cooks and cleans the apartment. Shaji's English speaking capability is limited. His accent makes it difficult to understand the words that he knows. Shaji is a Christian. Yesterday, after Mr. Jacob left, we continued a conversation about church. Shaji was asking me a question. He raised his hands and said "Praise the Lord". I did the same. I'm not sure if I answered his question or not. Today, I realized that Shaji is a member of a local Pentecostal church. He called his pastor and I spoke with him. His pastor is coming by on Friday.

The beanine on Shaji's sholder is Flip. My daughter, Jessica, hid Flip in my luggage with instructions to take pictures of him. (Like in the commercial.) Flip is in the earlier pictures of the apartment. Can you find him?

Apartment in Chennai

These pictures are of my apartment in Chennai India. It has a living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, small deck. A washer and Dryer are located outside on second 'back' deck. One or more ceiling fans in each room, including bathrooms. Air conditioning units in each room. A TV in each room with lots of channels, but nothing good to watch.

When I asked Narayan how the living standards of the POWRTRAK team compared to this apartment, he said "On a scale of 1 to 100 where this apartment is a 90, the living conditions of the team would be about 20."

The owner, Mr. Jacob, is a Christian. He acted like I should have assumed he was a Christian since his name is 'Jacob'. He attends a nearby catholic church. There is also a protestant church, "House of prayer", located within one Km.

This is where Shaji prepares my meals. He will fix whatever I ask, but I'm letting him decide the menu. This morning, he prepared something that looked similar to oatmeal. It was eggs, milk, and butter. When hot sauce was added, it was very tasty. The kitchen has a water purifier system and large water dispenser.

All three bedrooms are the same size. They have plenty of closet space to accommodate the limited amount of clothes I could fit in my suite cases.

Notice the water hose next to the toilet. That is the replacement for toilet paper. I have not attempted to use it. I may need coaching on the proper technique. This is the method used at the office as well. Yesterday, there was no toilet paper in the bathrooms at the office. I may start carrying my own stash.