I am really running out of patience with this horse excrement.
I ordered a debit card for my bank account almost a month ago and was told it will reach me in a week or so. Obviously it’s still “on its way”.
There have been two separate delivery attempts to the Corporation’s other office, but both of them have bounced because “the consignee is not in the office”. If we present these pieces of information to a life form capable of thought process, it would quite soon conclude that the problem isn’t, for example, in the delivery address. A more advanced species might even speculate that the office was right on place, but the courier was unable to find the correct person from there. So what the hell is going wrong, then?
Well, luckily we have agents to deal with these kinds of problems. And unfortunately he is just as Indian as anybody else here. Instead of having my deliveries brought directly to me, he still insists on circulating everything around the other office “because its reception is open on work hours to receive deliveries”. Bloody hell, I’m at my office every day on work hours, ready to pick up anything if needed, and much more of a correct person to receive my deliveries instead of some random chick I should call every half an hour to find out if there’s something waiting for me.
I’m very much inclined to commit a ritual murder with a dull cheese grader, but maybe I’ll just laugh at their faces and enjoy the money I withdrew from the bank today:
The Engineer invited me and my girlfriend for a dinner tonight. I suppose he is going to cook something traditional Indian food, but that we will not know before evening. The interesting point of the whole setup was the question he asked me this morning:
“Should I ask our project manager if the dinner tonight is ok?”
I guess it is customary in India for companies to regulate employee behavior more accurately, but it never crossed my mind that it could reach beyond working hours also.
Maybe it’s the strict hierarchy that requires almost paranoid control over your team members, who knows?
In other news, I got the confirmation for my trip this morning. The boss of my boss (or his boss, something like that) finally gave his Seal of Approval, so my days left counter is correct. Next we wait for the travel company to confirm the reservation and the Indian embassy to grant a visa for me.
Edit: the truth was a bit different from what I described above. The actual question from the Engineer was not actually about our project manager, but my girlfriend. He got confused with the names (they are somewhat similar) and was ashamed of asking again, for he thought it would be an awkward situation to admit forgetting someone’s name. Only after we left the “official” environment to have a cup of coffee he could correct the mistake.
I think there is still something special about the situation. It’s not the control freakiness of Indian managers, it is the way mistakes are handled. I would have expected him to correct it as soon as he noticed, but instead he wanted to wait until we are out of the regular working environment. I am not saying it’s a bad thing, just interesting since I am used to a different approach. I never thought of our office space as a formal place, but I guess it is exactly that for him.
Last week was a real roller coaster for me. Showing The Engineer around was quite a hectic job since almost everything in Finland was new and exotic to him. On top of all regular (to us) things, like a lot of forests, temperatures close to zero and so on, the first snow came on Friday. I don’t remember the last time with so violent blizzard-like first snow, so The E got exactly what he came here for.
I got my invitation letter from Bangalore on Friday and immediately filled the visa application. All it requires now is two photos and a letter that explains the essentials of my trip. After that the application and my passport must be sent to the Indian embassy in Helsinki, which will return the passport if a letter with sufficient stamps is provided. Otherwise I would have to personally visit the embassy in order to get my passport back.
I have done quite a lot of research regarding India already, but there is still a lot more to learn. There are things that cannot be learned by reading, but the cultural shock might be a little milder if I prepare myself well. Another way of adjusting would be to find some familiar things that I can take with me, either in my backpack or in my mind. Those would be music, books, foodstuff, exercise and other such things I’ve gotten used to in Finland.
I am still waiting for information about accommodation on my visit. It has now been two weeks since my query for an apartment, but nothing has come up so far. I hope this is not another thing that has been forgotten somewhere between other tasks…
Maybe I’ll give them a reminder just in case.
The more conversations I have with The Engineer, the larger the gap between our cultures seems. It is not a bad thing by any means, it is a huge resource for both of us. I’ve been learning a lot about Indian culture, habits, politics, religion and all such things during these two days. What delights me the most is that I still have several weeks to have discussions and learn to know things.
There’s so much I don’t even know where to start from. The Indian culture seems to be centered around families rather than individuals, meaning that everyone should be ready to do sacrifices for the good of their families. Individual achievements are valued the most if they benefit the whole group in some way, e.g. if one of the family gets a good job and is then able to support his/her parents and siblings. It also goes the other way around, meaning that the brightest one of the kids will be supported in his/her studies by the whole family in hope of a better future. If we are to learn something from the Indian people, I would suggest co-operation and solidarity among families to be it.
The Engineer was surprised to hear that my kid brother is married while I am not. The Indian way is for siblings to get married strictly in the order of age, with no exceptions. Disobeying this unwritten law can lead to an internal crisis in the family since it is considered as an disloyal act against the others. This is something I would not want to adopt myself, even though I can see the basis for it.
Today we will be dining out with our managers and the Usual Suspects of the technology team here in Oulu. Before that I intend to familiarize The E with the more exotic (for me) shopping places in Kauppahalli in order to find something familiar for him to eat at home. We will see what we can find on our visit.
Our colleagues from Bangalore arrived to Oulu on Sunday. Yesterday I picked The Engineer up from his apartment and walked with him to the office in order to show him the way. We had some meetings and the whole day was over before I knew it. After work I helped The E do his shopping since we don’t want our co-workers starving alone in their apartments. I also met the Team Leader whom I will be working with during my own visit in Bangalore.
The first impression of these chaps was that they are very polite, hard-working, kind and modest. Their accent does not exactly qualify as the easiest one in the world, but most of the time I can manage with them. On the other hand, I may not be the best person to criticize that…
On my standards Indian people are quite passive and want to have accurate instructions for working. This is something new for me since all my colleagues so far have been European. Even though I knew it would be different, the contrast was surprising. It will take some practice to adjust my ways of working to comply with their style, but I don’t see it as a problem. We get along fine already.