Last Days

Thursday I slept in as long as I could, which was about 10. I put on my suit (swim that is) and headed to the pool. Linda was already there. We had a very relaxing couple of hours out there. It is very warm here so every 20 minutes or so I took a swim to cool off. And I cheated... for lunch I had a grilled pita sandwich and fries. This was my first non-Indian meal here. Felt a little guilty, but the fries were so good!

And then it was off to work! It was another busy day. I had a meeting with my team. Followed by a meeting with the leadership team. Followed up by a meeting with the manager there. Then we headed to dinner.

Dinner was fabulous! We went to the same place as Monday (still can't remember the name). I was at the non-veg table and they kept ordering dish after dish, drink (non-alcoholic) after drink. I was so stuffed! I literally was having trouble swallowing I was so full. The team was very animated and we had a wonderful time. But it took us forever, so we didn't get to take team pictures before we had to head back so everyone could work.

Linda and I packed up our stuff and headed over to the GMI offices. There we met some of the people that used to work for Intelenet and now work for us (after time passed as we have a non-compete). They were excited to see us and to show us around. It was one of the guy's birthdays so Linda had brought a card for him and said that I didn't know what birthday bumps were, so he should show us. Boy, was that interesting! One guy picked up his arms, another his legs to suspend him above the ground. Then the rest of the guys kicked his behind! Did not look fun at all! Finally close to 3 am we finally headed back to the hotel.

After what seemed like a short night (wonder why) we were on the way back to the office. There we spent some time with the team answering any final questions or in my case, talking with my new friends. Then we did an award ceremony where everyone got a bag of Dove chocolates (yes, Linda carried 50 pounds of chocolate from the US for this occasion). They love our chocolates and it was a special treat for them. After the ceremony, most people immediately took their bags and locked them up so no one would steal them. Hasina didn't. When she stepped away from her desk Nikunj took them and put them in an empty drawer of a different desk. When she got back she asked who took her chocolates. Everyone was giggling. It took only seconds for Sangita to point the blame on Nikunj. I told him he best be careful... he is the only guy in that area. Everyone had a good laugh.

In between shifts, Sunita (my team lead) and Darshana took me shopping at the mall. I wanted to buy a few traditional Indian outfits. This might come as a complete shock to everyone, but I guess I am a different size and shape than Indian women! I did find some that fit. Everything was so pretty that it was hard to decide what to buy. So I bought too much. Oh, well. It was pretty cheap. Oh, and one dress was a little loose around the middle so it was altered at the store in less than 20 minutes!

Then it was back to work. But really it was just another award ceremony. Once again everyone was pleased with the chocolates.

Since we didn't have a chance to take pictures the night before, we wanted to take them before we left. Intelenet is very strict about cameras. They are not allowed in the building (my camera was with Baba, the driver). We thought we could just take them outside the building, but were quickly told by security that we couldn't do that either. After trying to get approval (and failing) we finally decided to just walk to the parking lot of the mall to take them. That worked well and we took a bunch of pictures.

Then it was time to say good-bye. It was very sad as now having met the team I feel even closer to them than I did before. They also gave us presents. I got a beautiful fresh water pearl set (earrings, necklace and bracelet). And some postcards of old Bombay. Shilpa also had given me a very nice silver bracelet.

When I got to the hotel I started to pack. And amazingly, everything fit!

And now I am going off with Neetha and Vaishali again to see some sights and do some shopping. I probably won't buy much more... :)