The Bangalore Report II – Day 3
Filed Under (Projectplace, Social) by Olle on 09-11-2009
So the third day is to it’s end, and I’m really starting to miss my family! And I can tell you, eating alone it not healthy. I even tried to contact an American who was sitting eating at the table next to me durring dinner. I said to him “Oh my, that looks really good, what is it?”, his answer was: “Shrimps!”. Fine, I know when to back of.
Well, today started as most of the days here in Bangalore starts, Ram picked me up at the hotel at 08:00 and we drove down the crazy streets of Bangalore to the office. I really think Ram has taken my previous report to his heart, he used the breaks at least four times and the horn only like 15times on the way to office. This is true improvement.
At the office Ram got an hour or two with his friend GWT. Me, I also did something, I’m certain, but I can not really recall what it was.
At 11 we hade a great workshop on Initiatives(again) and SMART Goals, we hade some great discussion and I also finally understod how the heck I get the Presenter Screen on my Macbook and not on the projector. Why the heck have Apple decided that the default setting shall be Presenter Screen on the alternative display? Well, the meeting went really well and since I’m talking about the Bangalore team, talking about initiatives is just like pouring gazoline on an open fire. It’s great. We even managed to reach four Q4 SMART goals for the Bangalore Team.
After the meeting it was time for me and Jojo to take part in the Steering group meeting and the rest of the team went of for lunch. It’s kind of cool that it’s really easy to take part in a “committee that decides on the priorities or order of business of an organization and manages the general course of its operations”(according to Apple Dictionary) while being thousands of miles away for the office. The coolest thing is that it is possible to make funny faces durring the meeting without any one knowing(well, except Jojo that is). On my previous trips to Bangalore I know I have reported on the screaming Scrum Master in Stockholm(a behavior we are used to know), but today me and JoJo found out that the screaming Scrum Master also always spells out load everything she writes. In the normal case this is not a problem I guess, but when you participate in a meeting through Skype and the Online Meetings found in Projectplace, thinks become somewhat strange.. We heard everything that was being written before we could see it on the screen, and it was also somewhat hard to hear anyone else in Stockholm since notes was take constantly durring the meeting.. Great fun!
In the afternoon Jojo also booked some meetings with three different developers to strengthen our frontend knowledge here in Bangalore. The first meeting will start at 9AM and the last will end around 1:30PM, so we got our hands full tomorrow. I’m felling really positive about the meetings, it will be great. We will not have a normal formal interview, but instead first talk a bit with the developer, and after that we will hack together to get a better feel for the person, how he thinks about the code, how he explains his ideas and how he behaves in the par programming situation etc etc.. But we need to cut the guys a bit of slack, just imagine yourself coming to a intervju to code with me, Ram and Jojo.. I’d be scared shitless.. But we only want the best, so we will try it this time!
One of the biggest drawbacks with being in another timezone, and working with people in a different one, is that the people in the other timezone don’t understand that the other person is in another timezone.. You get what I mean? An example: At 20:39 The Rose calls me on iChat. First he softens me up with asking how things are and such before he goes in for the kill. The question is if I can have a look at some script, we don’t know which, that makes the css render a bit strange for Safari certain cases. Thanks a bunch dude.. But he promised me that he would shout bad words, mostly popular names of the male reproductive organs, loud and clear in the office if I fixed it. Unfortunately a lame VPN setting hindered me from helping The Rose, big failure, we will have a second go tomorrow!
After work Ram drove me back to the hotell, and this was the first time I really thought about what happend in Mumbai, the terror attack, durring a previous visit in Bangalore. It sent shivers down my spine. Outside my hotel they look under every car with these big handheld mirrors before you can pass, they have metal detectors infront of the entrance and security that always goes through my bag looking for guns or such. It’s really scary when you think about it. My reaction was somewhat strange though, I asked the serious security guard going through my bad. “what is the most peculiar thing you have found”. The security guard did not answer.
Interesting fact nr 1: Today durring lunch Prasad of Blue Star gave me some wedding tips(even though he knows I’m married and all). Apparently down here in India it’s tradition that the woman get’s a lot of gold as wedding presents from friends and family, and the trick is to wed a woman from a specific religion(I wont’ say, since it’s my secret). According to well know facts the followers of this religion always get’s the most gold, Prasad even sent me pictures as proof, and I believe him! I can’t understand how they even have the power to stand up, it’s a massive amout.
Interesting fact nr 2: Ram is talking a lot about his cousins, so today in the car from the office, I had to ask him how many cousins he really has. “22″ he said. “What, 22..22!. Are you sure it’s 22?” I said. He said: “well it’s a lot at least. 17 lives in the states.”
