This morning Lily woke to find that our house had been egged during the night. That is very disappointing. The police think it may have something to do with our “vote no” sign on the lawn for proposition 2, but there is no way to be sure. Lily hired a power washer to clean the walls for us.
Later in the day, Lily took the kids to Wee-Witches. I love this tradition so much and I’m so sorry that I missed it!
Everyone got their face (or in Ammon’s case, his arm) painted.
Before going to bed, Lily put out Ammon’s birthday presents. I’m so excited for my little guy to turn 7!
Over in India, I had my most eventful and favorite day in India. I arrived at the office around noon after getting things done in my hotel room. Then I talked with the head of the India office for an hour or so just discussing my observations from the trip. I sincerely hope anything I said was useful, but he’s so capable, that it’s hard to know.
After meeting with him, I worked on some things and then I gave a training on MEDDICCC (a sales methodology) to the entire India team. Here is the view from the room wherein I trained. One of my favorite memories from the trip is how even in the conference rooms I could hear constant honking from the cars outside and none of the windows were open.
At the end of my training, Navneet presented a gift to me in behalf of the India team.
The gift was a hand-crafted wooden sculpture of the Hindu God Ganesh. Ganesh is a God of good fortune and prosperity and is worshiped at the beginning of a new adventure. I was genuinely touched by the gift. I felt my trainings were haphazard, under-prepared and sloppy and that gives me a lot of anxiety. With all I have going on right now, I feel like I’m falling short in every area of my life. But I was so touched how they received me so warmly and thanked me so sincerely for my stay. I have a lot of follow-up I plan to do as it is my sincerest hope that my trip can be beneficial to the India Qualtrics team. In just one week, they became very dear to me.
Another example of how special the people are is this: Anooj (one of the managers), had already taken the day off today. He personally decided that if I didn’t get a tour of Mumbai (meaning my Mumbai experience mostly would have been the hotel and the SAP office) that would be a shame. Used some of his day off to get a driver and take me all around old-city at the South of Mumbai. In the car he told me all about Mumbai, Hinduism and much more. I didn’t feel confident navigating Mumbai on my own, and I wanted to see the city so much. I’m so grateful Anjoon took such an interest in my experience in Mumbai. Here is a catalogue of our adventures:
This is the train station that was built by the British while the occupied India. It is also where India was attacked by terrorists in 2008. In that attack, the terrorist moved onto more locations after shooting people in the train station including a hotel (which I also saw) and a cafe (which I ate in). This report has details of the heinous attack.
Here is a video that shows how intense the foot and motorized traffic is. By way of interesting comparison, after it is a downtown intersection in Singapore that I was at the very next day. Very different vibes that is for sure!
I think this is a city government building, but I’m not sure. Isn’t the way they light up buildings amazing?
This is the Gateway of India. The monument was erected to commemorate the landing of King George V and Queen Mary at Apollo Bunder on their visit to India in 1911.
Here is the hotel which I mentioned was also attacked by the terrorists in 2008. Also, Obama stayed here after the attack, and that was a meaningful gesture for Indians.
We then passed a very popular clothing market that spans a kilometer:
Then we went to a market. It was a very unique experience. The place is famous for haggling, and also I think people could tell I was a tourist and many people approached me trying to get my attention. One person complimented me on my shirt as he walked next to me, and before I knew it, he was telling me he could make a shirt like it in two hours. People were very persistent!
Then we went to the cafe where the terrorists shot more people. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls. I got chicken masala and it was superb. I also had a salted lemonade. It’s the second one I’ve had in India, and I loved it!
After dinner I went to the airport. I am so grateful for the experience Anooj gave me!
At the airport, I was interested to learn that the plane taking me to Singapore was the A380, the largest airliner in the world, and a double-decker. It has four huge engines, very long wings, and you can see the multiple loading tunnels for people to board. It didn’t seem wider than other international jets, but as soon as I boarded, there was a staircase to take some passangers to the top-level, and that was interesting.
