The view from the hotel in Pune from the dining room.
This was the dining room. It was very nice, with a nice selection of American and Indian foods for breakfast. I usually got a combination of both. I was surprised how much I actually liked Indian food!
Random Asian-style chair in the Westin
So I remember where I stayed!
Many modes of transportation, most of them small with several people on or in it.
And then there were the trucks, all decorated. I haven't quite figured that out yet.
Random mall.
The view from the office in Pune.
This is funny because Kingfisher is the #1 beer in India. The drinking age is 25, and many people don't drink at all. They also can't advertise alcohol, so Kingfisher also distributes water and then puts the name on the water fountains. Pretty sneaky!
Yes, they were!
The oxygen zone. I thought that was funny. Most of the area doesn't look quite so green, but apparently this is where all the oxygen comes from?
Margapatta City is the area where the India Technical Center (ITC) is.
This is the top of the IBM building. I met a guy named Sameer and we went to dinner there. He used to work at Kohler and now is in HR at Citibank, so I got to ask him a lot of India HR related questions. It is also where I figured out that most restaurants serve appetizers, even though you may not realize they're appetizers, before a meal. They bring it out and put food on your plate, and I just thought it was dinner. Nope! I was full before dinner started. Twice!
Sameer and me. I also learned with dinner with him that the peanuts on the table are also spicy! I was ok to eat them, but I had spice on my finger and touched my eye. OUCH! It really burned, both that night and well into the morning. Crazy!
The office in Pune at the cafeteria.
Megha and me. She recently moved from the Delhi office to Pune, and is in charge of training for India. She has been extremely helpful, and I'm happy she's there! She's helping me get my HR person hired there.
The terrace. It's obviously not built out yet, but it will be beautiful when it is.
This is the ITC leadership team. It was rather funny when we went up there because I had asked someone to take our picture and they couldn't get my camera on my phone to work. So then someone else helped him to get the picture taken and when I downloaded my pictures, I had 126 of this same photo! I decided one was enough to show here.
Megha and me again.
The restaurant we ate at with the ITC leadership team. It smelled like fish and urine to me. Not sure why. When we got there at 6:30 we were the only ones there, but it started to pick up between 7 and 7:30. They eat very late there. And once people got there it smelled much better!
Amy and me in front of the restaurant.
Amy with her non-alcoholic drink. The curly straw just cracked me up!
Sujit with his pink drink and pink curly straw. And a beer!
My panoramic pic... Amy, Kineer, Sachin, Yogesh, Sujit, Pradip, Sameer.
Our bill. It's like 136000 INR or something. I had to divide everything by 60.
Our food. But it was cooked.
View from my hotel in Pune.
A dosa! This was wonderful breakfast food as long as I put syrup or jelly on it. What it came with was super spicy, even for breakfast!
Roadside markets.
The entrance of the ITC.
Other buildings in Margapatta City.
My afternoon snack. Can't be beat!
And I wish I could remember his name, but this is the guy who brought me my snacks and my drinks.
And my Diet Coke on my plate with a napkin. I love it!
Group picture of everyone in the ITC. Growing from 38 to 52 by the end of the year to 62 by the end of March!
It was the only day it rained, on our way back from the Pune office to the airport. I thought this sign was funny... Pune's 1st Pop Up Shopping Carnival.
The Pune airport.
Well, that's an awfully big gun to have to get a drink of water!
And we arrived in Delhi. Well, actually Gurgaon, which is near Delhi. I stayed at the Leela, which is a beautiful hotel, next to a large shopping mall, with the Kohler office on the other side. Here's the lobby.
My room.
My bathroom, with my wonderful bathtub and the ceiling shower (from Kohler). Loved it!
And of course my slippers!
My beautiful view. What you can't see are the tent cities that are just outside of the hotel. Again, the have and have not contrast.
And in the desk drawer? A Bible! Or, some version of it.
The entrance to the restaurant in The Leela.
And just for Max, a picture of the bathroom. He thinks it's so fancy when they have "real" towels!
We went to a P&G plant to tour and to get best practices. It was really quite interesting, including the ride. Much of it was dirt roads. And of course people walking everywhere.
I'm glad I don't have to travel like this!
I wish this would've turned out better. Families just travel by motorcycle. In some cases, there would be three kids and two parents!
This is from P&G.l It's their 10 pillars of an Integrated Work System. I know, probably not so interesting to you, but fascinating to me! And may be a large part of what I deal with in some shape or form in the not so distant future. Perhaps in a trip to Italy? Nothing official yet, but we'll see!
The plant was really well kept, with beautiful landscaping.
Most trucks had some version of this. When passing, you're supposed to blow your horn, or flash your brights at night. It made for very noisy driving too!
Entrance to the Gurgaon (Delhi) Kohler office. They do a lot more gold fixtures there where we would have silver.
We headed over to the mall for some food. Chili's? No thanks...
We passed the Beer Cafe (but ate in it later)
The kids play area...
And went to KFC. Some KFCs in India don't serve chicken. They are a strong vegetarian country so some are all vegetarian. I had a veg sandwich. SPICY!
Part of the mall. This was just there on the first day. Not sure what it was!
The Gurgaon office. It looks a lot different from the Pune office. Much busier and more collaborative.
The six-story Ambiance Mall connected to the hotel and to Kohler office. Top floor is an ice-skating rink, 5th floor bowling and night clubs. 4th floor restaurants. 3rd electronics. 2nd India fashion. And 1st American stores like Gap. The basement is Big Bazaar. Think Super Walmart. I bought a lot for the kids there, some food to bring home, and an extra suitcase.
My binda. It's for good luck and spirituality, and they put it on my when I came into the hotel.
This is The Imperial Hotel in Delhi, where Amy stayed most of week two. It was very old European designed.
Back to my hotel and my restaurant. I had breakfast here every morning, and could get literally anything. Indian, American, Chinese, or many other nationalities.
Back to my binda...
My HR boss Stephen. He's a big part of why I joined Kohler, and I'll be sad when he retires next year.
A Delhi burger! Which isn't really a burger, but is vegetarian. The bottom bun is deep fried. It's spicy. And delicious!
The Juicy Lucy... apparently it's a big thing in Minnesota?
This is from the Beer Cafe. Dave should be proud.
I walked by this every day on the way to work. I finally had to take a picture.
This is usually what I chose for breakfast. Fresh squeezed orange juice, cheese and crackers (red pesto cheese and wild herb cheese), watermelon and dragon fruit, a sausage and mushrooms. Yum!
My pool. My one regret was being so busy on the weekend that I didn't get to hang out here.
Back to my hotel lobby. It's also where we had the Kohler India HR conference.
I got to meet Laura Kohler (VP of HR) in India, which was great because I sat at her table and was a great opportunity to have conversations with her.
Funny enough, this hotel was also where SHRM India was having their annual conference. I've gone to the SHRM US Conference a couple of times so it was very interesting to compare. (Very similar, but much smaller... 15,000 people vs about 900 in India!)
I bought jewelry at the mall... this lady owned the store and her little girl was there two different days I was there. I thought she was so cute!
After the first day of the conference, we had traditional night. Megha took me shopping earlier in the week and wanted me to get a Sari. She asked if I had a half shirt with me. Um, no. Not with me! So I got this outfit... the shirt I've already worn again, so it makes me happy I could reuse it.
We had dinner out by the pool It was a beautiful night!
These are random pictures in the hotel. I thought they were kind of hysterical!
And this is the bar in the hotel. Kind of psychadelic, huh?
And to top off a wonderful trip, this was waiting for me when I landed at O'Hare. Ok, maybe not for me, but for the president of one of our businesses who was landing at the same time. But I'll take it! It's a good way to get home from Chicago. And even better...
This was waiting for me when I landed! How cool they could come out on the tarmac and meet me!
And showing off some of the gifts I got them... Ava loved her Indian outfit!
Outfit #2...
Nolan loved his cricket bat and jersey. I thought a cricket jersey would be so easy to find, but I asked EVERYWHERE! It just so happened that the Reebok store guy went in the back and came out with this Bangalore jersey, and fortunately it fit Nolan perfectly!
Other random things... Dave and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary while I was gone. It was the LONGEST anniversary ever! It started with me calling at 2:30 AM India time because I couldn't sleep. Then I got a text from him when he woke up the next morning. Then I emailed him before I went to bed. Then he emailed me before he went to bed. It was simply the never ending day!
In one car ride, I saw dogs, chickens, cows, pigs and goats. You just never knew what you would see. The cows everywhere just really cracked me up. But they're sacred animals, and so they can't kill them. When they no longer produce, they simply stop caring for them and let them go. It's like stray dogs, only... cows!
The jet lag was never awful, but the first couple of days were bizarre. I was trying to figure out what I was doing, and didn't have all day meetings. The clock on my computer was still home time, so I would see the hours pass by, and I'd be sleepy. 1:00 AM, 2:00 AM, 3:00 AM. 5:00 AM felt like it was close, and 6:00 AM felt like victory. It's like when you're up sick, or up with a sick kid, and you feel all alone and like the night will never end. And then you suddenly see the light and it's morning. But in this case, it was evening. By 6:30 PM in India, when I was just getting done, it was 8:00 AM here when everyone was just getting started. And then all the emails would start pouring in!
I haven't had a day of regret since starting at Kohler. It's not perfect (where is?) but it's really great for me. I feel like there's opportunity that I never had before, and a network of people, both HR people and business people. I can't wait to see what the next year holds for me!
