The weekend

I feel like I am in India version of Office Space. Around 7pm on Friday I was asked to come in on Saturday to do some work. So I ended up coming in for a few hours. About 50% of the people in the area I sit in were working on Saturday. In most departments a 6 day work week is expected. On Saturday they put in 4-6 hours instead of the 9+.

I did go to the local mall after work on Saturday. It is called the Shipra Mall. It is the largest mall in the area. It is about 1/3 the size of Southdale mall. Most of the stores were clothing and the majority were on men's business clothing. It felt like it was about 90 walking around in the mall. Most stores were very small in size, about 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. There were a couple larger stores and a movie theater also. I recognized a couple brands and store names from the states. The mall had valet parking which we used. Entering the mall and having to walk through a metal detector and getting padded down. The highlight was going to McDonalds. I had a chicken sandwich and a coke. My friend had a veggie burger and a coke. The bill came to 140 rupees or about $2.80. There was also a Papa John's in the mall.

Earlier in the week I also saw an interesting comedy called Outsourced. It is about a call center manager who has to train his replacement in India because his job has been outsource. The beginning of the movie with his experiences in India were pretty close to what I went through.

As far as TV there are about 60 channels, but only 5 are in English and 2 are the same movie channel. 2 of them are Star Movie channels and they other 3 show movies or old episodes of US tv. The movie channels all show commercials. There is an ESPN but all I have seen on it is cricket, golf and tennis. There is a CNBC but it is only focused on the India markets and only in Hindu.

Here is a link to my favorite commercial out here. The song in the background is my new theme song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-uSu4h248