Dogs in Mumbai

How can I not write about the dogs in India?
Those who know me know I love dogs, and I keep a good number of them at home. So being in India, alone, seeing all the dogs around here does mean they do attract my attention.

There are many dogs around here. They seem alone of in pairs, I have not seen many that have seemed to have created a pack as one would expect, given their ancestry. The dogs I'm talking about are the strays I see on the streets. Many Indians love dogs, they feature a lot in family scenes, commercials and generally on tv. My friends here love dogs, some even have a dog, but domestic dogs don't have the freedom the strays have, sometimes because of the strays. After all, I personally would be careful to have a stray dog socialize with my own dogs.

I've been to many places in the world, and seen many places where dogs are held or stray ones roam the streets. Never though have I seen stray dogs live in the way they do in India. The people in India are aware of life, more so than other cultures I have seen (please note, this is from my perspective).
The dogs here are not kicked out of the way or mistreated for being stray dogs. They seem to mostly be ignored. The dogs are not holy or something, they don't live divine but wild lives. They seem to live on the scraps of human kind, some even find kind souls that care for them, even if they cannot offer them a home.

But as strays are expected to be, they are unpredictable, the main reason I did not tempt or approach them. I do not want to end up getting more shots than i got when going to India for silly behaviour. 

My observation of stray dogs so far would be that they seem happy. Their tails are always curled up, they seem unconcerned of the hustle and bustle of the city and they sleep a lot, even close to where they might be run over by the chaotic traffic. Sleeping seems undisturbed, they don't even open their eyes when you approach them.

A dogs life, even as a stray here is not bad. The freedom allotted to a stray dog is massive, they go everywhere, unhindered. They sleep everywhere and they seem to find food, some seem even well fed. Dogs living with people obviously receive more human love. But they don't seem to be able to get out as much as they would like (mostly they are overweight (both from that love and lack of exercise).

At first I misinterpreted the implications of strays, but I am alright with it, though I did hear stories of some of the attempts to lessen the number of strays, after all, people who are charged with catching dogs would not be well paid civil servants, they would be people lucky to have a small income per dog and would view catching as a dog, without concern for the dogs wellbeing. 

So far, these seem lucky dogs, lucky to live in a country where life is revered above all. (Who knows, maybe that dog out there is the reincarnation of your dearly departed grandfather...)

Christmas in Mumbai



Brightly decorated trucks are a common sight

Though my first thought about christmas in a far far place away from my family, where I would usually celebrate with a visit and a christmas dinner, was to just let it pass and forget about it as soon as I could.



Basis for this thought was the likelyness that christmas will not be celebrated in a country like India where the majority of the population is Hindu or Muslim, or maybe Sikh.




Colleagues decorating their cubicles

  As it turns out, christmas is celebrated more and more. The Indians like to celebrate anything. Especially if it means they can decorate things. When vibrant colours (like we do have with christmas, especially bright green and red, and gold, silver for decorative bells and balls) are involved the Indians do love to integrate a holiday into their lives.



The result of a cubicle decoration



Christmas is of course a celebration recognized worldwide, it is the most prominent holiday of the christian faith, and even though only about 2% of the Indian people are christian (still a hefty 24 million people) some of these go back to the advent of christianity and claim they are decendents of Thomas who visited India a score of years after christ's demise. Many of course are converts from the time the British waved a sceptre over India.



This makes christmas a holiday which is also recognized in India, and quickly being adopted within the life in the current season.


 

Gingerbread house in the hotel lobby



Christmas hats are worn here without shame



I have had to explain a lot that the way that christmas is viewed nowadays in India is mainly the way it is done in the USA, as Santa Claus is not an ageold traditional figure unless you only count the previous centuries. As such the way I have always celebrated it in 



A huge christmas tree in
the lobby stairways of the hotel



the Netherlands does not involve a jolly jellybellied red suited man, nor presents under a tree. It involves a visit to the church and a cosy
christmas lunch with hot chocolate and sausagebread my mother likes to bake. Then in the evening a christmas dinner together with the family.



Hotel hallways decorated
with christmas bells



What I see in India however is rather fun. The warm (though for Indians rahter chilly) weather denies me the real sense of christmas, especially with the knowledge that in the Netherlands there will finally be a white christmas after the many years that snow evaided the christmas date.



Indians love to decorate as I noted, this is shown in

  the brightly decorated trucks and cars, and during christmas they put up lights when and wherever the can. At




Decoration can have themes



Like that of a laundry



work they decorate their cubicles which attract many attention from colleagues. There are brunches at the

  hotel, which I plan to make use of, and more importantly, I'll go christmas shopping with friends.

Christmas in Mumbai can be good, but in its own way.



Messing up is golden

Yesterday I tried to make a purchase, luckily for me this was an internet purchase, as to my surprise my purchase was denied. My creditcard was not accepted. Imagine that happening when you want to check out of your hotel and you cannot pay your bill.

Alright that last bit would not have happened, as I carry two cards, and this card was my backup card.
Yet, you never know, there is a reason why I keep both my cards separate, so that if I lose one, I have the other one as backup, and I would have had a problem.

I tried to call my bank, well that succeeded, using Skype. Then it turned out they could not help me and gave me a number of their credit card service, that failed, as Skype did not agree with the new numbers automatic answer machine.

So today I tried again, from work. The girl on the other line sounded like she could have been my 12 year old niece. She understandably asked me confirmation questions, quite a lot of them and then asked me if she could help.

I told her my card didn't work and she checked and found no block on the card (that was a relief)
Then she checked my purchase. I had used the wrong expiry date... Could I tell her the expiry date please.
I told her what was on the card:

She said that that was not right, so my obvious question was, what is it then?
Then to my surprise she said, I cannot give you that information...

So I am in India, 7500km from home, I gave this girl all the answers on the questions she wanted, and she cannot give me my credit cards expiry date. So I offer her the number on the back that's used as security number, every company can check that, but she didn't have THAT information to check...

Fortunately she was nice enough to ask her supervisor, who agreed to giving me the expiry date, it was not 2015, which I must say seemed a bit long for a credit card. But it was 2011 (figures).

So with this new information I go back to my hotelroom and after working for a few hours, I decide to try this new expiry date...*WRONG*
Still my purchase was declined.
So knowing my expiry year, I start trying other months, which was possible in this website, cause it didn't have a maximum number of tries. After 9 tries it finally worked...

Now I know the expiry date of my card, I have a faulty card obviously. It was never this hard to get to use my shiny golden card though.

Family extended

In India the notion of family is a very strong one. It defines the way of working here as well.
The team I work with will go to lunch together as much as possible, something I value even in the Netherlands. Lunch is usually hot, it is shared by any who wish to, something we Dutch are not used to, but a notion I have always liked. Therefore I like to share myself. However, am I sharing?

Up till now I have not been paying for my lunch, there has always been enough, and enough for everyone. But well, sharing doesn't feel that pronounced when you share something that you didn't bring yourself :)

One reason for sharing is of course the joy of showing others what you brought, and how good it tastes, towards me there is of course a lot of new things to offer. Indian food for me still has a lot of surprises and mystique. I'm sure there are still a lat of things to taste, and to find out. My friends and colleagues will point out things and let me taste things, things I am told the name of, yet as long as I hear it pronounced differently by different people it will stay hard for me to remember the name.

Sharing goes a long way, and it reminds me of family a lot, where at home we use to share a lot as well, my twin sister and I were very close when we were young, and it was always logical for us to share things. Being in India with good colleagues that try to share food, knowledge, experiences, makes be feel at home.

Last Saturday evening I was invited to a yearly company event, it is called Jashn, and my expectations were that it was going to be limited event. Little did I know that the Capgemini company here in Mumbai has 10000 people working for them, out of a total of 30000 in India. The event of course was huge, and I felt lost at first. So many people there, and since I must have been one of less than 5 white people I was stared at a lot, what's this white person doing here ;)
When finally one of my team arrived I must admit all returned to a family outing feeling. We met up with most of the rest of the team and we enjoyed the show.

Family sometimes is not always in blood bond, you can feel with family wherever your heart finds it.

First impressions

(I've decided long before this post that it would be better to switch to English again, yet since the next few posts will be interesting to more nationalities than I imagined, it is time to put that in motion. Besides all my friends are proficient in English and will find no problem reading this.)

Many Indians, colleagues and otherwise ask me of my first impressions of India, mainly because I admit it's the first time I am here. The truth in this is that I may be too overwhelmed to give a straight answer.

At least not yet, but I realize that anything I say later won't be a first impression.

However all I can go by is what I experience, and to be honest, nothing created a better first impression than the perceived chaos on the Indian roads.

As I was warned not to drive myself here I have not even tried to arrange anything like a car (or a bike for that matter). Luckily I did not spend any time on that, because self drive would assuredly have lead to some personal disaster here.

Nothing can prepare you for the driving experience that you get when you hit the roads in Mumbai.

Even sitting in a backseat, the sound of honking and crisscrossing of vehicles on all sides are intimidating enough to keep me on the edge of the seat during the trips I make.

The main difference in driving in the many places I have been is the total ignorance of the lines on the road. The lines, signs, traffic lights make little impressions on the people using the roads. Out there it's the law of the cheeky. The more dominant you drive, the more chance you have of getting where you want to go. This is reflected in the way the drivers use their horns. In most countries I've been to, the horn is something hardly ever used, unless in iritation. The horn here is used all the time, in warning, irritation and a "watch out mirrorless idiot, I'm right behind you" - which usually means inches behind you, not yards, or miles. Here honking is encouraged, most trucks notify the driver behind them to please use the horn.

The way you get from one side of the road to another (for instance to get to the exit, which can be on all sides of the road) is to push yourself inbetween two cars, trucks, autoriksha's or whatever, then when that fails and the left side is clogged up with cars, you swing out dangerously to the right, swing by , cut off the car on your left and then squeeze between two motorcycles to reach the far left and barely miss the high concrete wall dooming up to divide the exit from the main road. Then you dive to the right because a lone tuktuk has a breakdown in the middle of the road and someone is standing (with death defying braveness) behind it to wave traffic away from imminent collision course. Of course the danger for life does not seem to phase many people here, perching high on piled up good in the back of a truck is not the safest way to travel is my opinion.

Obviously this has impressed me, and overshadowed my deep impression on the gorgeous gowns worn by the women of India, probably because of the lifethreatening effect some antics had on me.

Deze week stond een beetje in het teken van mijn aankomende Agile leader certificerings examen. Het is kort dag om alles af te ronden vóór 15 februari, vooral omdat ik vorig weekend pas de voorwaarden gekregen heb.

Gelukkig heb ik de kans gekregen om e.e.a. af te ronden. Het betrof een Application form, met daarin mijn Agile ervaring, voornamelijk op gebied van projectleiding. Deze diende getekend te worden door mijn manager en dat lukte gelukkig op tijd.

Daarnaast vragen ze me om een Synopsis te schrijven. Notmaal slaat zoiets op een boek verslag, vaak geschreven door de schrijver van een boek, een beknopt overzicht van de karakters in het boek, en een plotlijn en eventueel wat aanduidingen om het verhaal duidelijk te maken zodat een uitgever niet het hele boek hoeft te lezen. (en ik maar denken dat uitgevers zoveel boeken lezen)

In dit geval vroeg men mij om een project synopsis te schijven. Eigenlijk hetzelfde, want een project is tenslotte net een jongensboek. Ik heb het afgerond en opgestuurd naar onze Agile manager, hij gaf me al meteen zijn fiat over het verslag, en ik heb het aan een vriend in Ohio gestuurd. Die mailde me vandaag dat het verslag goed is maar dat er een aantal vreemde zinssneden in staan. Niet vreemd aangezien ik het over twee dagen heen heb geschreven en soms reviseer je een zin waar je zelf overheen leest. Precies daarom laat ik het ook aan anderen lezen.

Dit weekend komt hij erop terug. Ik hoop het zeker, aangezien het vóór maandag ingestuurd moet zijn :)

Ik ben wel blij om te horen dat men het interessant vindt en dat ik waarschijnlijk geen complete overhaul moet doen op het stuk.

Als het is opgestuurd is het wachten geblazen. De examinatoren gaan het lezen en geven er een waarde aan. Indien men het duidelijk en goed vindt dan zullen er gewoon wat vragen zijn m.b.t. Agile en mijn kijk daarop.
Als het nog onduidelijk is zal ik e.e.a. moeten verduidelijken in een gesprek van 45-60 minuten.

Ik ben heel benieuwd of ik het haal. Ik kan me hier niet echt op voorbereiden. Mijn Agile kennis en mindframe heeft zich over de jaren heen gevormd. Studeren voor zo'n examen is niet echt zinvol.

We gaan er gewoon voor.

Open Space

Gisteren was de Open space. Sogeti en Agile.
Ik vond het heel goed gaan.
De marketplace was redelijk succesvol, en ik had keuze in sessies.
Helaas kon ik me niet in tweëen splitsen, maar dat is Open Space. En ik ben nu eenmaal te luid om zomaar als hommeltje weg te lopen. Onze CEO kwam ook meedoen en dat was een welkome verrassing.

De onderwerpen varieerden van "Agile een hype?" tot "Wanneer nu geen Agile" en meer specifiek, "Kan Agile in een Infrastructuur project".
Aangezien dit voor velen de eerste keer was dat men met Open Space in aanraking kwam waren er weinig hommels of vlinders. Men maakte nauwelijks gebruik van de Wet van de twee voeten, maar op zich is dat uiteraard geen probleem.
De sessie waren vruchtbaar en hebben allen resultaat geboekt.

Wat me wel opviel was dat er, ookal waren de uitgenodigden allen geinteresseerd in Agile, er toch nog veel vragen heersten over Agile. Vaak heb ik nog een kleine uitleg moeten doen om aannames weg te nemen.

Agile wordt nog steeds gezien als vrijheid blijheid, en al is dat in grote mate aanwezig in Agile, is het nog niet zo dat er daardoor gaten vallen in het proces op zich.
Ik merkte dat men nog steeds denkt dat er geen documentatie wordt opgeleverd, men heeft nog niet het concept van timeboxing in de gaten, men denkt dat een Agile team niet verder kijkt dan één iteratie, dat het niet mogelijk is meerdere stakeholders te onderhouden en dat beheer vergeten wordt.

Ik ben geen Agilist, ik ben van mening dat je moet werken met wat voor jou werkt. Ik prefereer wel om  methodieken en raamwerken zoveel mogelijk puur in te zetten, ten slotte zitten de elementen die in een methodiek zitten niet voor niets in die methodiek. Maar als er onderdelen zijn die geen meerwaarde bieden, wijzig ze dan, of gebruik ze niet.
Echter zit er in de meeste best practices ruim voordeel om ze te gebruiken, het niet inzetten van die best practices is meestal onbekendheid, het niet inzien van het nut (vaak lange termijn nut) of teveel vasthouden aan traditionele verwachtingen.

Indien je bijvoorbeeld Scrum inzet, zorg dan dat de meeste randvoorwaarden aanwezig zijn. Zorg voor een team dat groter is dan 4 man, dat er een ruimte is waar men samen kan werken, dat men ook gaat staan bij Stand Up meetings (het heet niet voor niets zo), etc. etc.

Het lijkt soms pietluttig soms, maar al de kleine dingen die van je worden gevraagd hebben een nut. Als je je wat meer verdiept en ervaring ermee opdoet dan zul je zien dat het werkt of dat het nut je duidelijk wordt.

Open Space ten slotte past ideaal bij Agile. Het maakt dingen zichtbaar, het is creatief. Ik was heel tevreden en ik denk dat we vaker gebruik gaan maken hiervan.