Client and Hyderabad Visit - Day 3 - 22/Oct/08

This day was marked entirely for sight-seeing. No official meetings had been setup for the clients. I just had a quick meeting with my team and then checked-out of the Guest House. By the time we finally got on the road outside our office, we were delayed by at least 45 minutes.

However, the place where we planned to go first had an even later opening time. The place called Shilparamam is basically a market where artisans and craftsman peddle their wares that ranged from stone carved dolls to jute bags to woodwork to clothing materials.

The makers have been given a place to stay within the campus and can sell their wares at designated shops that have been opened up for them. This in effect eliminates the various middlemen and so the cost of the product doesn’t bite our wallets.

The clients had a really great time buying stuff especially at the shop where woodwork was being sold. Each of them bought stuff for more than Rs.1500.

We then had lunch at some restaurant and then headed out to the Salar Jung Museum. By the time we reached that place, it was almost 2.30 PM. Since we were getting a little hard-pressed for time, we wanted to finish up visiting this museum quickly. Luckily, the Program Manager who was with us had a great contact inside the museum. His brother-in-law was thick friends with the Chief Security Officer of this museum.

In typical Sarkari Babu style, the Program Manager started showing his weight around to those on guard asking for the Chief Security Officer by his first name and then referring to his post. This did get us a lot of attention and we were soon escorted by a Policeman on duty. He started showing us around the museum. Within 5 minutes, another person who looked like the typical museum guide also came along. Turned out that he too was a cop, but one who was in street clothes. We told him our time constraint and since it was also nearing 3 PM, we had to watch that famous cuckoo clock at work. He assured that he would take us there in time and showed us around a few other rooms.

The museum is quite a big one and the collections inside are fantastic. My first thoughts before entering the museum was that only the things used by the Nizam dynasty would be on display. Only after entering a couple of the rooms did I realize that this was basically an exhibition of all things that the Nizams collected over the centuries. There were great stone idols of Hindu deities and exquisitely carved Hindu deities in wood. There was a really huge wood statue of Garuda made in Rosewood and there was also a very big (almost 6 feet by 6 feet) painting of the famous Geethopadhesham scene in the Kurukshetra battle.

Anyways, it was nearing 3 PM and so our guide hurried us in one direction. It was a small atrium sort of place inside the museum. There were a lot of iron chairs set in line, like what you’d find in the Railways Reservation Counter. There was a small corridor at one end of this atrium and this was actually at a higher level (or if you prefer, the atrium was at a lower level). There was a small 2 feet by 2 feet contraption placed on a table there and there were two projector screens on either side of it. This contraption was actually the famous cuckoo clock. I had expected a large grandfather type of clock, so it was a let-down.

The atrium must have been around 25 feet by 25 feet with this clock at one end. There was a gap of around 10 feet between this clock and the first row of chairs. When we reached this place, we wanted to settle into the chairs at the end that were empty. However, our guide asked us to come forward and there we saw 2 special chairs placed some 4 feet ahead of the regular chairs. We thought that they did something for the clients. But the guide asked the 2 of us as well to come to the front. Since it was getting very close to 3 PM, the crowd started murmuring and some even raised their voices asking us to sit down. The policeman brought 2 more chairs from somewhere and in effect the 4 of us were now given privileged seating very close to the clock.

It was then 3 ‘O clock and a small doll popped out from a door at one end of the clock, hit a gong-like thing thrice and then went back inside the door. Very honestly speaking, the whole thing was a big let-down for me. First of all, I expected a bigger clock based on all the descriptions I had heard before. So seeing a small clock was a little upsetting. And blaming myself, I assumed that there would be some elaborate show at the top of the hour like a bunch of soldiers marching out etc. I guess I went in with very high expectations and got let down.

Anyways, after the clock had made itself useless for another one hour, we were joined by 2 more policemen. These guys were also in “mufti” but they had the unmistakable air of a policeman and carried walkie-talkies with them. They took us to the room with the marble collection and showed us an amazing sculpture called the Veiled Rebecca. This is a white marble statue of a woman and is probably around 6 feet in height. From a distance of say even 3 feet, it looks like the statue has been draped in a piece of transparent cloth – like a veil. But get closer and you will realize that there is no such cloth. The sculptor has carved it in such a manner that the marble itself looks like a veil. This is a truly wonderful exhibit and a definite “Do not miss” category topper.

They then took us to various other sections of the museum and I was impressed by the ivory collection. They had chess sets made of ivory and were of different sizes. There were even variations in the form of Indian style, Japanese style, Burmese style etc. Special mention must also be made of the chinaware and the glassware on display. There were so many Gold rimmed cutlery and all these were marked as ones used for daily use!

All along, we had these policemen escorting us around. The only thing missing was a policeman with a rifle and that would have completed the “VIP” picture! Since it was getting late, we wrapped up the visit and thanked all the guides profusely. What really impressed me was that these policemen were well aware of the significance of each of these exhibits and were able to come out with a lot of information related to it.

We then had an even more hurried visit to the Chowmahalla Palace. This is quite a run-down palace and is actually not very impressive. We took all our mandatory pictures and then headed off to the airport.

At the airport, the clients and the Program Manager were on the same flight but I was on one scheduled to leave an hour later. My airline’s counter hadn’t even opened and so we spent some time chatting in the area before the Security checks happen. But the others had to leave and I was then waiting for the counter to open. This was when I realized how much I miss my phone. At such occasions, I’d either be forwarding messages, or playing some game on my mobile. But now, I was sitting in the waiting area quite literally twiddling my thumbs!

Finally the counter opened and I got my gate pass. After I crossed the Security check point, I ate some of the “cheap” airport food and then went to my gate. But due to the bad weather at Chennai, my flight and quite a lot of the others too, was delayed. There was no formal announcement and I learnt it by looking at the TV screen.

I was flying by Paramount Airlines which has earned a name for its “All Business Class” seats. I expected their service at the ground also to be that good, but it was far from that. Finally the flight took off an hour behind schedule. Amongst the many passengers in the flight was the irreplaceable S.P.Balasubramaniam. There was also the small time actor Raja (appeared in movies like Pudhu Vasantham, Karuthamma etc.).

I finally reached Chennai after a not so pleasant flight – there was some turbulence and I was not really happy with the Airlines’ claim of “All Business Class”. There was more legroom, but the rest of the seat was as cramped as an economy seat in any airline.

I reached home only by 11 and went to bed early since I had to pick up the clients at their hotel the next morning. But this travelogue ends now. If you have read this, Thanks!

Client and Hyderabad Visit - Day 2 - 21/Oct/08

I reached the meeting room just on time this morning and in fact the clients had arrived a minute before I did. We went ahead with our breakfast and then resumed our meetings. Buoyed by the confidence I received after the presentation on the previous day, the demo I had today was a cake-walk. The client did ask few questions and I must admit that I came back with good responses.

We then had a walk-thru around the campus this day as well. But this time, the clients came out with their cameras and it was time for a lot of photo-ops. We even had the mandatory team pictures taken at a couple of scenic places.

We wound up for the day by around 5 and were out on the road headed to the famous Golkonda Fort. I think what happened after that has already been chronicled by me here.

In effect, I missed learning about the Fort and also didn’t get the opportunity to roam around the ruins. Anyways, since it was late in the evening, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it, though the authorities had installed lights at many places in the ruins itself. But these lights were only for a cosmetic effect and I think I have one more trip pending just to see this Fort.

We had dinner at a really fancy restaurant that was attached to the Hotel where our clients were staying. The food was outstanding especially their desserts. We split for the day and I finally reached my room by 11.15 PM.

Client and Hyderabad Visit - Day 1 - 20/Oct/08

Continuing my trend of waking up early on Monday mornings, I got up by 6.45 AM that day. Since I was going to get me regular filter coffee, I had to make do with the instant coffee that was available in the room. I then logged on to the Internet to check the morning newspaper of The Hindu. I took my time to get ready, but by 7.40, I was out of the room. We all then headed out to the office building where the meetings were arranged. After leaving our bags in the room, we then stepped out to receive the customers. By then, I was sporting my blazer and thankfully it still fit me (it was short even when it was first stitched 4 years ago). And I must admit this - the only thing that makes me look good is the blazer, but I think the blazer/coat-suit has the capacity to make anyone look good.

Anyways, the customers then came along in their car to the front of the building. We were introduced and I got a really knuckle breaking hand shake from the man. I don’t give a dead-fish hand-shake but this one was almost crunching the bones and I had to strain that extra bit to return the favor. The lady, however, gave a normal hand-shake. We then took them to the conference room and then we kinda started getting into the official portion of the visit. And a quick racial profiling - the guy is a Maratha who's settled in the US for almost 20 years and the lady is a red-headed Caucasian.

One of my senior managers gave a presentation about the organization and left the presentation about my unit to me! It was my first time presenting those slides to any customer. The only other time I'd even seen these slides was during a client visit in Jan '08, but my job then was to only click the buttons to move the slides while some other senior managers were doing the talking. So, when I had to start presenting these slides, I got a bit nervous and for the first couple of slides I couldn’t really do anything more than just read what was there. Luckily the senior manager was still around, so I deftly (or so I think) pointed to him and asked "Would you like to add some more?” I am sure he thought "Add? What did this guy say in the first place for me to add? I actually have to create not add." But he did bail me out for the first couple of slides and by the 4th-5th slide I regained my composure and was able to present a decent picture.

The rest of the day went quite peacefully with a good time spent on going around the campus. The campus at Hyderabad is quite a big one and needless to say, the two of them were really impressed. We ended the day around 4.15 PM and started the quasi-official part of the day. The plan was to take our clients to Charminar, but by the time we got there, the gates were closed. So we saw the monument from outside and spent the rest of the evening walking around the Chudi Bazaar (Bangle Market). There were quite a lot of small shops peddling bangles of various shapes, sizes, color, stones, artwork etc. All these were of course made of either glass or lacquer or glass or some metal and none were made of costly metals like Gold or Silver and none of the stones were actual precious or even semi-precious stones. And one had to bargain real hard otherwise we were bound to pay up some 4 times the actual cost.

We tried our hand at bargaining but failed miserably. While the language was not an issue - most of the shop-keepers spoke in Hindi and Urdu and my program manager's mother tongue was Hindi. So also the client. And I too could manage some amount of spoken Hindi though it may have sounded like Mehmood in Padosan! The real issue with bargaining was the very skill. And call me anything, but I think women are winners when it comes to bargaining. We were all given instructions to start at 25% of what the shopkeeper asks. But I found out that none of us could really ask that value. We men invariably started at 50%. And even on the odd occasion that we started at 25%, the shopkeeper simply refused to talk further and we too just walked away. I am sure women would have managed to keep the shopkeeper interested in the sale, but the only woman in our group at that time was a "Gori" - white lady - who didn’t speak Hindi. So that settled the matter and after an hour of walking around the bazaar we simply returned to the car.

We went out to some restaurant for dinner. Having stayed in AC the whole day, then being exposed to lot of dust at the bazaar and all this on a stomach that was rumbling with the food in the office, it was slowly getting into my head and I was not feeling too well. Even at the dinner table, I didn’t eat anything properly. We finally dropped off the clients at their hotel and when I returned to my room, it was after 11 PM. I still had some office work to do and I wound up the day after another 45 minutes or so.

Client and Hyderabad Visit - Day 0 - 19/Oct/08

19th October was the date identified by the Tamil Nadu state government to inaugurate the fly-over (bridge in local parlance) in front of the airport at Chennai. The time was set as 5:30 PM. I had decided to fly out to Hyderabad that same Sunday evening. My boss also got her ticket in the same plane.

So, in order to avoid the traffic jam expected in front of the airport (after all it was the Chief Minister who was inaugurating it!), we decided to leave quite early from home. We reached well ahead of time and got our boarding pass issued by 4:45 PM.

That’s when my boss said “Why are they boarding us in at 6 PM?”. I too was equally bewildered. Domestic flights usually board some 15-20 minutes before the departure time and this looked like a lead time of almost 90 minutes. After flipping over the boarding pass a couple of more times, we then looked up our e-Ticket. And it was printed in a very clear font that the flight was scheduled to leave at 18:20 hours and reach Hyderabad at 19:20 hours.

You see, I’d originally been booked on another flight at 19:30 hours. But since it was an ATR flight, I asked my agent to book me on another flight leaving at around the same time. He got me this new one, but I happily assumed that the flight was only at 19:30.

If there was no inauguration function that day, I’d have started at least an hour later that day. And I’d have reached the airport just around the boarding time. I’d have had the ground staff of Air India (nearing their retirement date) come look for me!

Anyways, I called up my parents after the Security clearance was done and told them that I was all set to fly out and would call them after reaching Hyderabad. I then made a resolution not to tell my parents about this near goof-up and decided to call them around 20:30 hours when the flight (per my schedule) was presumed to land there.

But the minute we left the Hyderabad airport by cab, by force of my good nature and habit, I called up home and informed them that I’d reached Hyderabad and was in the cab headed towards my office. It was around 20:00 hours and so my mother was shocked. She wondered out loud as to how come I’d reached there so soon. At that point, the cat was clearly letting itself out of the bag and since I don’t lie (about such trivial things) I told her about my mistake.

I got my second reminder dose of the Hari incident in 2 months. I could only sheepish grins and rest the issue.

On a side note, the flight to Hyderabad was really empty. I would put the occupancy at only around 70%. Agreed this was Air India and was a bigger Airbus plane, but still it was quite surprising to see so many empty seats on this sector. Perhaps the business travelers mostly prefer flying out really early on Monday mornings and with the evident increase in prices of air tickets, those travelling on personal reasons had perhaps stayed away from the flight.

After dinner, I went back to our Guest House complex and before I hit the bed, I met the Program Manager for my project. I didn’t want to have any surprises and guesses to be done in front of the client as to who was who. After a quick chat, I returned to my room. The TV was not working in my room at that time and I didn’t want to connect my laptop to the internet anyway. Also factoring the long day ahead, I decided to sleep early and so I hit the sack by 11 PM.

Hyderabad again

I will be travelling to Hyderabad this Sunday evening and will be spending the next 3 days in my office there. The clients of the project that I run out of that office is visiting us next week. Due to some issues with their flight schedules, they're arriving a day early and spending additional time with us.
We are of course, making use of this additional day to take them out to see Hyderabad and get them to do some shopping. :)
I will be returning to Chennai on Wednesday evening.

Client visit

Last Tuesday, there was a client visit in the office. I was helping out in the preparation of one presentation, but the point to be noted was that I had to collate a couple of case studies from different teams and append it to the standard set of slides we have.

By virtue of having "worked" on that presentation, I was asked to be physically present when my bosses were going to run through the slides with the client.

The meeting was attended by few of my big bosses, the lowest ranked among them being in the 3rd level above me! So, I was designated to control the PPT on the laptop and the lowest ranked boss would do that actual talking. Our meeting started 5 minutes later than scheduled and when the biggest of my bosses(he reports to the Board of Directors) came into the meeting after 10 minutes, the conversation steered away from the PPT and got into a generic Q&A session.

And while anyone in the room (including me) could have answered the questions, etiquette demanded that only the bigger of the bosses reply. So there I was sitting idly with my fingers on the keyboard, moving my head towards the direction where a speech was happening, nodding my head in general to show a sign of solidarity with the speaker and also throwing in a half-smile or full-smile depending on whether the perceived-to-be-funny remark came from my bosses or from the client (he got the full-smile obviously).

It didn't deter me that no one was really looking in my direction. Perhaps the only guy who took note of my presence, was the one who was serving us coffee/tea.

Thankfully the charade got over quickly since we had to wrap up the session at a designated time. We bid goodbye and left the place. And since the meeting was in the branch closer to my home, I seized the opportunity of returning home early and was home by 6.15 PM.