Patrick

Today started off on the wrong foot, with some minor transportation snafus.  Some of us were dropped off directly at Olive Technologies by their host families, as early as 9:20 a.m., while others (including my roommate and me) left our home stays at 9:30.  When we arrived at the cafe (our group meeting point) at about 10:05, to our surprise, nobody was there.  Finally, a few others showed up, so we knew we hadn't done anything wrong, but the six of us then waited for an hour before Paul and the coach finally showed up.  We finally arrived at Olive sometime around 11:30, more than an hour behind schedule.
The bus driver had been late, and his excuse was that he was having tea! (The other half of our group had already been there waiting for two hours). 

All the same, we had a very informative meeting with Sumeet (Paul's friend and connection who set up the home stays) and some of his colleagues.  Sumeet explained how Olive works and how, as an international Christian IT company with clients on the other side of the world, it’s difficult to keep any kind of a schedule; dealing with time zones is too disorderly.  He said he will often be on a conference call that starts at 2 a.m. so that he can talk with a Brit and an American.

Sumeet brought in some of his colleagues, one of whom (Anahn) is a Hindu, so that we could hear from them about their experiences. It was interesting to see how Anahn
saw Olive, and why he enjoyed working there.  He felt that he shared Olive’s values, and as a Hindu he has no problem getting along with those of other religions; nor does he experience any any complications with Christians’ devotion to Jesus; in fact, many Hindus come to worship Jesus as another of their gods.  Then the other colleague was able to tell a little about herself and about how she sees herself fitting into the workplace as a woman in modern India.  These three people provided insight into the feelings and frustrations of those responsible for the rioting a few days earlier in Bangalore. They also spoke about what it is like to be members of India's younger generation, faced with the challenge of bridging all the gaps and making all the transitions from 4,000 years of traditional culture and custom to the new India and all that is Western.  

After a brief but delicious lunch, we were off to Satyam, the fastest-growing Indian IT company, which made it to a billion dollars in revenue in less time than any other Indian company in the sector.  Satyam is one of Infosys’ main competitors in India, though it is nowhere near as large as Infosys.  Satyam’s facilities, though incredibly nice – with a pool, a stage, and a zoo inside the compound ­– could not hold a candle to the Disneyland that was Infosys. 

After our meeting, it was back to the coffeeshop to meet up with our host families so that we could spend the evening with them.  Matt and I went with our host father, Henri, to a BMFI meeting.  BMFI is a Christian businessmen’s fellowship.  There we heard some speakers give some testimonies unlike any I had heard before; then four of us from the
group had a long chat about Christianity, and what it means to have faith, with an interesting fellow from California who claimed to be a healer.