SSS stands for Symphony Secret Services

So, a really funny thing happened today. Marcelo and I met with one of the senior vice presidents at Symphony, Shirish Deodhar. The first thing he said after the introductions was, "is it you who has the blog?" I guess that the marketing department must subscribe to a media service (like AudienceView does) that pulls down pages with any mention of the company. So, the service found my blog and he read it! I was so embarassed. For everyone at Symphony Services who is reading this now, I hope I didn't offend anyone with my ignorant assumptions. Marcelo and I have nicknamed the company SSS (Symphony Secret Services) because they know everything. :) But, rather than crawl back into my shell, I'm still going to blog about the rest of our trip, but perhaps I will behave myself a little more.

Today began with another all-carb all-Indian breakfast. Most of the items were the same as yesterday, but with slight variations. The paratha of the day was cheese (cheddar? I could be totally wrong) and green chile, and the idli was tomato rather than spinach. A new thing I tried today was rawa upma, which resembled a really thick but smooth couscous with spices and cashews. The chef said that rawa is a kind of grain. It was so delicious. Marcelo and I think it's probably one of those things that you can try to cook yourself, but it would be a disaster.

Then our driver picked us up for our daily commute to the office. I didn't mention before that he is our own personal driver so we can call him at any time. I've never had a driver in my life (except for my dad and that was only before I got my drivers' license). We feel quite unworthy.

Along the same lines, when I got to my office, there was a fresh bottle of water and an ice cold Diet Coke waiting for me. Santosh explained to Marcelo that there are 'office boys' who do operations/administration work. Basically, you can ask for anything and it will be brought to you immediately (coffee, tea, projector, computer). And when I say immediately, I mean in less than 5 minutes.

Also in the same vein, Santosh asked us if we'd like to go out or stay in for lunch. We decided to stay in, so the office boys set my desk with actual flatware and brought paneer, biryani with green beans, raita with corn, roti (thin flatbread), and pickles. We ate leisurely then went back to the training room. When we returned, everything was magically cleaned up.

Basically, Marcelo and I are being treated like royalty. Everyone is so incredibly hospitable. It is amazing and I'm sure this is why India has had such great success in the software industry -- they really know how to take care of people. We are going to be such high maintenance princesses by the time we get back.

It turns out that the Symphony team that is working for Casero is on site in Toronto right now. Marcelo and I were wondering how they managed to get clothes to prepare for November/December in Toronto. We brought our summer clothes to come here, but it's winter here now and it's almost 30 degrees, so I don't think there are winter coats, scarfs, mittens, hats, or boots to be had at any time. Everyone has been so nice to us, so could all of you guys at AudienceView pop over to Casero and make them feel welcome? Come on, please?

In the afternoon, we had the meeting with Shirish Deodhar and Madhukar Bhatia (also in upper management) where I died of embrassment (re: blog). Since I had expressed such an interest in India in my blog, he started the presentation with information on India and Pune. Here are some cool things he told us:

India...

• has 3 times the population of the US in 1/3 of the land area.
• is the world's largest democracy.
• has free press and a strong legal system that is critical of its government.
• has 20 national languages, 1600+ dialects, and 10 scripts (so, 10 writing systems -- isn't that wild!). So, it is like having all of Europe in one country.
• conducts all higher education in the English language.
• has the 2nd largest pool of scientific and technical staff.
• graduates 300,000 engineers YEARLY (7 times the number in the US)
• Even though there is poverty in India, Indians are reported to have a high level of tolerance and satisfaction due to strong belief and faith. Indians believe in being satisfied with what you have and if you are given more, it is fated.

Pune...

• has a population of 3.5 million people.
• is at an elevation of 2000 feet.
• is not a state capital, so there is no political unrest (happens where politicans reside).
• in combination with Mumbai is the financial centre of India. 40% of corporate tax comes from this region.
• graduate 80,000 engineers YEARLY from Pune schools alone.
• was ranked #3 by Forbes magazine for 2006 Emerging Global Cities

Shirish also talked about how the goal of our relationship is for the team in India to be like an extension of our QA group in Toronto. So, rather than being just a resource pool they would become experts on our system and be in a position to add value. Judging from what we've seen so far, I'm sure they will.

We stayed kind of late at the office tonight (6:30PM) and the traffic was so much worse. Lesson learned: must cut out early. We had a late dinner at the hotel's traditional Indian restaurant (this may sound like a lot of Indian food, but we can't get enough). It was a buffet, but like the other buffets we've seen here, they serve you appetizers first. We had deep-fried fish, peanuts, pappadum, and a vegetarian mix of okra, potato, and paneer. After this, we were pretty full so we nursed our vodka and tonics for over an hour and then grazed the buffet. It's too bad we weren't that hungry because the food was so good. We had some different curries (spinach, eggplant, potato) with rice and I had a small bowl of curd. It was very light, slightly sour, and very healthy-tasting. Hungry or not, we sampled a bunch of Indian sweets, including gulab jamum (deep-fried dough soaked in rosewater syrup) and chocolate barfi (fudge-like bar). The barfi had this edible foil on it that stayed intact when you touched it, but melted instantly in your mouth (I know, I know, like M&M's).

I thought I'd give Marcelo a break from my never-ending photo documentation of our meals, so I don't have pictures, but I did get one of the paan we had at the end. My Lonely Planet guide says that paan is a mixture of betel nut, lime paste, condiments, and spices wrapped in a paan leaf. I think ours had some fruit in it too. It functions as an after dinner mint. It was very fragrant and tasted kind of like menthol, but not really. Marcelo thinks that we got the tourist version because he had one before and it was so strong it almost blew his head off. I think that some versions can actually make you high.

So, another day in India has come to a close. I really need more hours in the day. Goodnight all.