We visited the Bull Temple, which we were told by our driver was built to house a granite bull that kept other bulls from ravaging the crops. The granite bull inside was quite large, 15 feet tall and 20 feet long. The dark bull was draped with flowers and looked very festive. We were given jasmine blossoms that were strung together to offer at the temple. We later noticed that a lot of Indian women wear the same kind of jasmine in their hair. It is very fragrant. We had to take our shoes off to enter, but I saw that many approached the temple without shoes on. Peggy got a picture of the bull, but I did not. We realized that this was a place of worship and did not want to be too intrusive.
Next to the Bull Temple was another temple which I think was dedicated to an elephant but we did not get a good view. There was some ritual going on inside and there was a line of people there to observe it. We kept back a bit, still being mindful of the religous nature of these buildings.
After the temples, we visited Tipu Palace, which was the summer home of the Tipu Sultan, a most revered Sultan who fought the British at MySore, several times. Those pesky British! Tipu Sultan eventually was forced to sign a treaty, dictated by Lord Cornwallis and his two sons were taken hostage. Hey, didn't we defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown?
At the palace we were asked to pose for a picture with a large Indian man. Peggy said it is because a blonde white woman is a rare sight in these parts. Everyone we talked to was very interested in where we were from. Peggy explained to one missionary woman that she and I were both from the land of Disney, only on opposite sides of the states.
All this touring gave us an opportunity to really experience the Bangalore traffic in its prime time. You really have to have great peripheral vision to drive in this city as there are things coming at you from all sides. I have to give it to Ramesh, our driver, as he does have quite a talent for maneuvering around the city. He drove us to Sunny's where we had lunch. It was highly recommended and somehow I was expecting BBQ. It was definitely not BBQ. I had a Thai Prawn soup, Grilled Tuna and a Ganache Tart. Karen, I think you might win if this keeps up!
After lunch we headed to IBM. After all, isn't that why we are here? It was good to see Avinash, Rishi and Zuber again, and I got to meet the rest of the team: Teena, Vijay, Suresh and Pinaki. They are all very nice. I talked at length with Vijay about all of the things we should visit while we are here. He was going to give me a list of places close to the apartment that we need to know, like Pizza Port!
The class had an assessment, after a review of hardware and software. I spent the time communicating with folks from the CSD through AIM (welcome back DeeDee!) and checking my email. It's really frustrating to only be able to talk to Steve through email at this point. I haven't gotten my ATT calling card to work and it is so expenisive to call on the Blackberry. Avinash recommended another calling card, which I will look into.
After the test, we got down to ITSM training. So far we are only covering the fields and how they should be filled out. Teena, Vijay and Suresh are very good at explaining this and I would put in my 2 cents about what and how we want info. It is still too early to give them too many details about specific ways to handle certain cases, but we are stressing to verify the client's department, phone number and asset number and workstation each and every time. If something does not match the Peoplesoft info, they need to make notes in the Incident Symptom. They will also be asking for the client's location and putting that in the "Building" field under the address. Suresh stressed that they are very clear in their notes and need to go back and read them to make sure they are understandable. No abbreviations or jargons. Everything must be spelled out.
We we took a break, Avinash and Rishi took me to the IBM cafeteria, but not the part that Peggy visited before she got sick. Since I had a big lunch, I only opted for a couple of small muffins and pineapple juice. I had a slight headache which I am attributing to caffeine withdrawal! They serve coffee here in such small cups! I can't wait for my package to arrive. It has Maxwell House singles, amongst other things. The last I checked on its status clearance proccessing in New Delhi was complete, whatever that means. I am concerned because my tracking says that is being shipped to New Dehli, not Bangalore and there has been no new activity on the tracking since 4/16 at 4:38am.
We left IBM around midnight, but before we left I got word of the shootings at Va. Tech. How horrible! Both my brothers and my sister are Va Tech alum and my sister was just there on Tuesday with the boys. What an awful thing to happen and I worry that it will forever mark the school, such as Columbine. That would be a shame. I went to bed with CNN on, trying to get the latest. What a sad note to end the day.
1 comment:
KJ,
Sounds like your adventure is off to a good start. Have your co-worker Peggy shoot some pix of you there and post those! Robert and I are still in El Paso chillin' ( it is cool and windy here). We go to a nearby coffeshop with internet and look forward to your posts.
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