Bangalore and India in general has been seeing lots of rain (ask people in the state of Bihar, where 20 million are homeless), but as for Bangalore, the rain has kept the weather really cool and pleasant. I did not know but BLR is at an elevation of 2000 ft, hence the great weather.
Life cannot be better, my little one is now 9 months old and we are both sitting together and writing this blog. She loves to coo and is picking up new words daily. Btw I come home for lunch and get to spend a good 45 minutes each afternoon with her (one of the perks of having an office 3 minutes away in the next building). The son has also grown and has learned how to fight, is picking up interesting kannada words of which we have no clue. He says something, smiles and then runs away, and as usual we have no idea. Wifey job is comign along great, she has settled into the grove.
So what about myself, well I am heads down working on improving our maps. Our new Mapmyindia website has been launched. It has great driving directions which is landmark based. The quality of the maps has improved exponentially.
Recently we (family, the son, daughter, wifey and baby sitter) went to visit a waterfall near Bangalore called Sivasamundra. It is quite famous in the south. The location is on the way to Mysore (west of bangalore). I had heard quite a bit about the roads from BLR to Mysore but was disappointed. Bombay Pune highway, on which I had travelled 7 years back was better than the BLR Mysore highway. Roads in the south, specially Bangalore have a long way to go (from what I hear Bihar is getting better roads, no kidding).
My office is humming, got a great bunch of folks working, who i think practically work atleast 16 hours a day plus half day sunday. So you can imagine the output we are generating. Great bunch (has taken me a while to get this group of people).
I have put on lots of weight (one of the negatives of living in India), lots of great food, maybe one of these days I ll hit the gym. Still to try out the pubs in Bangalore (literally no time), will write a special blog about the same.
Chalo, enjoy the new Mapmyindia, get to learn about new places. Adios till then.
Shiva
Showing posts with label bangalore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bangalore. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Office in Bangalore
Howdy All,
My apologies for not writing in such a long time, but been both lazy and busy. I have finally gotten my own office in Bangalore. This location is around 2KM from the airport and 3 minutes WALKING from my apartment, so the commute is very pleasant and fun.
It is interesting to start your own office, went and got furniture (still havent received all the pieces), got a drinking water filter, computer, printers, UPS, phone etc. I am still missing the blinds and curtains. Hey I even have a cleaning lady that comes every other day to cleanup the place.
So now that I have this office, what have I been upto? Have made a gzillion sales calls for Mapmyindia, trying to sell Location Based Services (LBS), have hired a office manager+data entry operator+plus finance dealings (all in one). Have also hired around 10 folks that will be doing field data collection to enhance my maps.
The family is happy that I am out of their way and now have my own place to work, the son starts laughing whenever I tell him I am going to 'ooffiicce'. He finds it funny that Papa has to go to office. Made a bunch of trips to Bombay/Mumbai on work. Commuting has become dirt cheap, you can get walk up tickets for a 1.5 hour flight for $50 bucks.
I have actually started to like Bangalore, even though the traffic sucks and things are slow, but as a city, everyone has a startup culture. Weather is much better than most of India (that does not mean it is great). Now I know why this city is home to Infosys, Wipro, Dell, IBM, Intel, and a host of major IT companies.
Plus points in the last month - Learning how difficult it is to sell without a big brand name behind you. Meeting people from all walks of life from the office boy to the CEO of banks. Patience. Good South indian food.
Minus points in last month - Still have not figured out all the localities of Bangalore. Missing Kebabs and Punjabi Food.
Planning a trip to Goa, shall keep you posted on the same.
Till I resurface.
Cheers,
Shiva
My apologies for not writing in such a long time, but been both lazy and busy. I have finally gotten my own office in Bangalore. This location is around 2KM from the airport and 3 minutes WALKING from my apartment, so the commute is very pleasant and fun.
It is interesting to start your own office, went and got furniture (still havent received all the pieces), got a drinking water filter, computer, printers, UPS, phone etc. I am still missing the blinds and curtains. Hey I even have a cleaning lady that comes every other day to cleanup the place.
So now that I have this office, what have I been upto? Have made a gzillion sales calls for Mapmyindia, trying to sell Location Based Services (LBS), have hired a office manager+data entry operator+plus finance dealings (all in one). Have also hired around 10 folks that will be doing field data collection to enhance my maps.
The family is happy that I am out of their way and now have my own place to work, the son starts laughing whenever I tell him I am going to 'ooffiicce'. He finds it funny that Papa has to go to office. Made a bunch of trips to Bombay/Mumbai on work. Commuting has become dirt cheap, you can get walk up tickets for a 1.5 hour flight for $50 bucks.
I have actually started to like Bangalore, even though the traffic sucks and things are slow, but as a city, everyone has a startup culture. Weather is much better than most of India (that does not mean it is great). Now I know why this city is home to Infosys, Wipro, Dell, IBM, Intel, and a host of major IT companies.
Plus points in the last month - Learning how difficult it is to sell without a big brand name behind you. Meeting people from all walks of life from the office boy to the CEO of banks. Patience. Good South indian food.
Minus points in last month - Still have not figured out all the localities of Bangalore. Missing Kebabs and Punjabi Food.
Planning a trip to Goa, shall keep you posted on the same.
Till I resurface.
Cheers,
Shiva
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Finally in Bangalore, India
All, My apologies for the late blog, but finally here I am. Reached Bangalore yesterday and have picked up an apartment on airport road (You have to experience the traffic to realize how bad it is). Well in this past one month, I have travelled to Bihar (Bhagalpur) for a friends wedding, logged in 3500 KM (~2600 miles) city driving, finally opened a bank account, and managed to get high speed internet connection at my parents place. So I treat each of these as achievements, however small they might be.
Bihar was fun, took a train journey after 10 years along with my good friend who joined me from Patna. For the cost of an extra large Dominos pizza ($20), one can get a nice sleeper air conditioned ticket that takes you 900 miles. May not be the cleanest conditions but it is cheap. Bhagalpur is the 3rd or 4th largest city in Bihar on the banks of Ganga river, sleepy little town but is experiencing the great Indian boom as the government is spending 100s of millions of $$ for road development.
So back to Bangalore (Blr), it is an interesting place, for those who have not been here, it is a 2 tier city, outsourcing related people, and normal industry related people. Since I am in the normal industry category, am finding things a bit expensive here.
My www.Mapmyindia.com is coming up with a new version, we are going to be launching all India with better algorithms for navigation, plus better local search. So really looking forward to that. India really needs car navigation, 99% of people on the street give you wrong directions when you ask them for a locations address etc. Officially we have a presence in Blr, since I now live here. In the process of finding office space, local tel numbers and some staff, setting up office is a pretty tedious process (ask those who have recently setup back offices in India).
For all you NRI's (Non-Resident Indian) living abroad, I would highly recommend buying some property in India, as the prices will start looking like Tokyo in the next 10 years, there is way too much money chasing too little real estate. Things do get frustating at times, as customer service SUCKS in India, but if you scream loud enough people listen :).
Rest is fine, watch out for the updated site (hopefully it opens up).
Cheers till then,
Shiva
Bihar was fun, took a train journey after 10 years along with my good friend who joined me from Patna. For the cost of an extra large Dominos pizza ($20), one can get a nice sleeper air conditioned ticket that takes you 900 miles. May not be the cleanest conditions but it is cheap. Bhagalpur is the 3rd or 4th largest city in Bihar on the banks of Ganga river, sleepy little town but is experiencing the great Indian boom as the government is spending 100s of millions of $$ for road development.
So back to Bangalore (Blr), it is an interesting place, for those who have not been here, it is a 2 tier city, outsourcing related people, and normal industry related people. Since I am in the normal industry category, am finding things a bit expensive here.
My www.Mapmyindia.com is coming up with a new version, we are going to be launching all India with better algorithms for navigation, plus better local search. So really looking forward to that. India really needs car navigation, 99% of people on the street give you wrong directions when you ask them for a locations address etc. Officially we have a presence in Blr, since I now live here. In the process of finding office space, local tel numbers and some staff, setting up office is a pretty tedious process (ask those who have recently setup back offices in India).
For all you NRI's (Non-Resident Indian) living abroad, I would highly recommend buying some property in India, as the prices will start looking like Tokyo in the next 10 years, there is way too much money chasing too little real estate. Things do get frustating at times, as customer service SUCKS in India, but if you scream loud enough people listen :).
Rest is fine, watch out for the updated site (hopefully it opens up).
Cheers till then,
Shiva
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