This week, I’ve started working a shift akin to a “swing shift” time frame if I worked local hours. I’m working 3:00 PM IST – 12:00 AM IST, with an hour of delivering training classes at the end of my shift. In all honesty, I think the most interesting part of working nights over here to align properly with US hours is how normal it seems for people to do so, the same with this type of swing shift.
On Monday I headed out to an Italian restaurant just outside the hotel doors (still in the mall area, it’s almost like a food court if every restaurant had dedicated indoor and outdoor seating) and ordered a meal for breakfast, and a meal for dinner once I got home. Arriving between 12:45 and 1:00 AM here means that nothing is open, room service has stopped delivering… and unless I want to wait up for breakfast at 6:30 in the morning (and then try to fit in some sleep between then and waking up at noon.. I have to plan ahead. I explained this to the waiter, who essentially told me this is a normal request for them. He said “most people work nights here”. I’m guessing he meant the hotel, because that’s not the experience I’ve seen on the roadways in the early morning when driving home, but still… given how many Americans and American companies are catered to here at UB City, it shouldn’t have really surprised me, either!
As much as it has made my eating arrangements odd, however, it has allowed me to get some pictures from my drives into work. Yesterday, I saw four people on a scooter. It’s hard to see in this picture, you may have to zoom in… but you should see a man and his wife on the scooter… and his wife is clutching a toddler driving along at around 20 MPH. This in itself was enough for a picture. Getting closer, though, I realized the man had a boy of about eight years old between him and the handlebars!
This is extremely typical from everything I’ve seen here in India, in fact we’ve counted up to five people on a scooter, eleven people in a small sedan, and nine people in a rickshaw. (and it wasn’t even a Longas one! [ha!])
I just looked at the clock… and I’m running out of time before I need to get to work! With that said, I’m going to cut this one short… but here are some pictures I took along the way to work yesterday:
Laundry on the street corner
A mosque we drive by each day
