March 15, 2008
The weekdays more or less went like a template with not much difference between a Wednesday and a Thursday other than a different variety of chicken for lunch.
We cook dinner at home and the standard menu is rice, dal and mixed vegetables (we buy frozen veggies from the super market). I generally do not get into the technicalities of cooking though I am not too bad at it. I am content with setting up the rice in the microwave occasionally and watch the experts like Raj and Govind prepare the dal and veggies.
While having dinner we put on some movie on the laptop – invariably a movie which we have watched umpteen times before (OSO, Chak De are the front runners).
The first weekend was the first time we went out into the heart of the city as tourists (though the main motive was to click snaps and upload on orkut/picasa so that friends back home could see and be a bit more interested in us). With Shubhashish our tour guide we visited Red Square and the area around it. We could not enter Kremlin as it was a bit late (First Saturday so I slept a bit more).
The metro network of Moscow is very extensive and the frequency is superb. Before you realize you missed your train you have another to jump into. The stations are clean and quite well maintained. There are multiple levels underground having routes/lines named in different colors like green, red and blue much like London which I experienced as a kid and about which the world knows.
The super market is located 100 metres from our hotel next to the metro station (Opexobo). Everything is available there except Indian masala. So all sorts of apprehensions regarding what sort of a place Russia is going to be and whether our basic requirements will be met there was put to rest. All MNC products that we are so used to nowadays are available starting from Coke and Pepsi to Colgate toothpaste and Tide detergent. The ‘iron curtain’ seemed to be well and truly gone. Even managed to have a meal each at McDonalds and KFC. On looking out we even found our favorite Maggi noodles also available in the super market (though not the ‘masala’ flavor).
And of course there is Vodka for which Russia is famous for. It’s kind of difficult to avoid it. When you enter a super market you see more bottles of vodka that any soft drink or any other product. There are a number of brands and number of flavors available but the kick it gives is all the same (Indian or Russian).
Indians are very few and I have not come across a single Indian outside our Infy team. It’s hard to believe that there still exists a place in this world which does not have enough Indians but surely this is one such place. Other than a few medical students there aren’t any Indians around. Of course the legacies of Indians are still there – the first name that comes to mind is of course Raj Kapoor and the second is none other than Mithun da. Bollywood movies dubbed in Russian are available in the market (Disco Dancer and Shri 420 being prominent ones).
Its two weeks completed in Moscow and we are into our second weekend after joining work here. Work has been smooth so far with BPD started and not much issues related to Liabilities module. The day starts off with a 1 hr 15 min cab ride to office where the Ipod Nano is my favorite companion (thanks to my wife). We reach office at about 9 and I proceed for my favorite breakfast i.e. omelet and that too with cheese and sausage or mushroom. Bread here is free so you can have as much you want but two is generally enough for me for breakfast. Only thing missing here and which is a part of every IT professional’s office life in India is a coffee machine. No free coffee from a coffee vending machine but thankfully due to so many Infoscions gracing the Uralsib office we had an arrangement already in place. A jar of Nescafe was there but for the first few days there was neither sugar nor milk powder. We got the sugar and now with more team members joining in we have the Amulya milk powder in place as well. Now surely the coffee machine will not be missed.
6 Comments
WAY TO GO AVI!!!! Though we chat everyday and speak over the phone i think this amazingggg writeup gives the true picture of what you r doing there.Truely spoken from the heart….(wow im glad tht i gifted u the nano)
So you learned to use the Ipod yourself.
Well written, add some pics to your blog. Will make it more interesting.
Joy please do write about the locals, how do they behave with u in office in normal day to day life. Are they hostile to outsourcing and such stuff ?
sandip says
we understand vodka is available in plenty – but no record of consumption
if you must call it URALSIB DIARY II there should have been some continuity between I and II
Do you mean that the iron curtain has been lifted but the world has not opened eyes ? In that case media has a job to do
You said that you have not seen any Indians there except your colleagues – but from the photographs of Red Square that you sent it seems that there are only Indians there.
Overall the write up is interesting and gives rise the desire of knowing more about the country.
Hey Joy, Good to see you are enjoying yourself in Moscow! Have fun and do post some pictures of the place and your experiences with the local cuisine.