First few days at work

I'm not going to talk about work itself, client confidentiality and all that (as well as being way too dull). However, there are things worth knowing - we're an international group. The client is a German multi-national company that is setting up an operation in India and is using us (a UK multi-national consultancy). So from our consultancy there's me (a Brit based in Chester), another Brit based in Sydney (who I'm replacing) and a Swede based in London. The client has a number of Indians with local knowledge heading it up, a Spaniard managing the project and a number of Germans in varying roles who spend time in both India and Germany.

There are two cars allocated to the clients and the office is too far from the hotel to walk, so we tend to go into work at the same time every morning (7:45 breakfast, 8:15 departure). Leaving work varies, but there's plenty to do so nobody seems to be in a rush to leave (which is a shame). There is a cafe at the office, but we tend to go out to a local restaurant (it's still only £3 for a proper meal, so cheaper than in London for a sandwich).

For some reason I've been in the front seat every trip. The trip to work starts by leaving the air-conditioned magnificence of the hotel and turning (against traffic), crossing and then heading along next to a slum area that is directly across the road from the hotel. Even slum is too generous a word, frankly. If you think of New York slums then you think of really run down buildings; in Mumbai they're not really buildings at all. They're tiny shacks at best, with corrugated iron for rooves. Amazingly, some of them have satellite dishes.

I mentioned the driving in my earlier post. The thing that needs to be added is just how little damage there seems to be to the cars out here. You would expect that the driving would lead to lots of little dings and dents, but that really doesn't seem to be the case. If anything, they look in better nick than in the UK. There's also a huge number of taxis, either on the roads or parked by the side of them. There seem to be two basic types - an old car or a newer 'minibus' style. I'm told that all the taxis run on gas, which means that the pollution is much better than it would have been.

Breakfast is a buffet service, much as you get in most good hotels, but with the fry up replaced by curry options. Actually it works rather well and I've gone with that most days.

On my first day I was told that the hotel we're currently at is increasing rates quite substantially so we will need to move. Thursday night we went to have a look at the most likely replacement. Rooms are a lot smaller, but it's a nicer hotel surroundings (old style colonial instead of modern functional). As luck would have it the proposed new hotel isn't available one night next week so it looks like we're here until next weekend.

Unfortunately most of the team was tired or working on Wednesday and Thursday evening so we didn't go out of the hotel. I didn't know the area and didn't feel comfortable venturing out alone so had room service for dinner at the hotel both nights. Very well done, but not cheap by any means - sauteed morel and forest mushrooms masala was about £10 excluding rice / naan.

Friday night was rather better, starting by going to the rooftop bar at the hotel (rather lovely views over the city) and then to the Phoenix Mills - a ludicrously expensive shopping centre that's gorgeous. Apparently the things there are more expensive than the same things in Europe. Given that there's a Bose shop there it's hard to imagine what they cost here. Within the shopping centre, as well as a franchise of the Comedy Store and a Manchester United bar there is a vegetarian Thali restaurant which is magnificent. There's about 20 or so different curries / breads / desserts that they just keep bringing around until you've had enough. Excellent value at £4.