Shaji's apartment

This is the apartment where Shaji's family lives. Of course, Shaji lives with me most of the week. He spends Sunday's at home. This building is directly across the alley from Shaji's church that I attended on Sunday. The picture doesn't capture the smell of the open sewage ditch running along the alley.



This is Shaji's wife. She is expecting. You're almost seeing the entire apartment. I'm standing in the doorway to take the picture. It is a one room apartment with a divider that separates the kitchen. That is the only bed behind Shaji. From the bed, you can reach the refrigerator and TV.



This is Shaji's beautiful little girl, Jaquline. She is wearing her best Sunday dress. She is one year old. 1st year birthdays are a big event in India. Shaji showed me the photo album of Jaquline's 1st birthday. All the relatives came, the whole church celebrated.

City Life

One of my co-workers in the States commented on how beautiful the city of Chennai is. I tried to give a different perspective with these pictures, but the pictures still do not convey how dirty and poor the the city is. These pictures were taken within walking distance of my apartment.

Behind all the shops that line the roads are the back alleys where people live. I haven't ventured down these alleys. It feels like I would be walking into their living rooms uninvited.

This person was pulling trash out of the bin, not putting it in.

Care to guess what type of carcass is hanging in this shop?

Pentecostal Church - Pastor Paul Raj

Sunday I attended church with Shaji. He attends a Pentecostal church, Apostolic Christian Assembly. The church is about 45 mins from the apartment. It is right next to Shaji's house.
Because I was there, Pastor Paul Raj delivered his sermon in English and his son, Ebenezer (Ebe), translated to Tamil.


Earlier in the week, Shaji invited his pastor, Paul Raj to the apartment. To his right is his son Ebe. To the left is his nephew Edwin. Ebe has a masters in Medical Sociology. He is wants to go abroad for theological training. Edwin just inherited several small manufacturing businesses when his father past last year.

Mahabalipuram

Saturday, I took a day trip to Mahabalipuram. Mahabalipuram is located approx. 70 Km south of Chennai. Getting there is quite an adventure. The absence of traffic lanes and rules in the city is nerve racking, but outside the city where your speed is not so constrained by traffic, driving is scary. The road to Mahabalipuram is a two lane road that is clogged with buses and two wheelers. When you want to pass, you honk your horn, straddle the middle line, and expect on-coming traffic to move over.
The primary attraction at Mahabalipuram is the temple shown above. Read more about it at
http://www.mahabalipuram.co.in/index.php.

Mahabalipuram is on the beach. I didn't take pictures, but the the town is filled with tourist shops selling rock carvings, trinkets, etc.



These rock carvings are just 1/4 mile inland from the temple.

This picture is not zoomed in, these monkeys let me get within touching distance. There were several other monkeys playing in the trees, but they did not hold still for photos.

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.