Today was our first day for business. After breakfast the company we are visiting sent several cars to pick us up. A couple of days ago in Singapore half our group went to China to meet with some other companies and today they caught up to us in India. We are one big group again and some people leave tomorrow to go to Bangalore India to meet with a different part of the Indian company called Tata. Anyway, it took 3 cars to fit us all.
I didn't think traffic could get any crazier than it was yesterday but to my surprise Monday morning was even worse. It is so congested it can take 30 or 45 minutes just to travel 2 miles. We went first to visit the main office of Tata. After seeing the shape of most of the buildings here I was very curious to see what a high tech company looked like. After going through a typical ramshackle neighborhood we came to a big iron gate. On the other side was the main office and the building was actually very nice from the outside. The inside was very modern and looked much like what a normal computer graphics company would look like outside of India. We were greeted by the Creative Director which is basically the head guy in this company. We were led into a big conference room and we were served water and coffee. I experienced my first Asian business custom, the business card exchange. During the business card exchange you usually offer the card holding it with both hands. When you accept their card you are supposed to place it on the table in front of you and leave it for the duration of the meeting. If you put it directly into your pocket it is considered poor form. They proceeded to give us a video presentation of the kinds of work they have done and talked about the direction their business wanted to go. It was all very business like but they were very approachable and I didn't feel as uncomfortable in that situation as I expected. They gave us a tour of the facility and they really bent over backwards to make us feel welcome. You could tell they felt we were really important to them.
Next we went to their second facility where most of the work they do for ILM is completed. They had several other video presentations where they talked about work they were proud of. Most of it was on 'Bollywood' movies which are a particular genre of movies they only make in India. Bollywood movies generally involve some sort of singing and dancing and the actors wear brightly colored costumes. They had some pretty interesting work where they were taking a very famous Indian actress who was in her 40's and digitally changed her appearance to look 20 years younger for some flashback scenes. We visited several artists where they showed us what they were working on. After that we went to another big conference room and they presented us each with a gift which is a common business practice here in India. You aren't supposed to open your gifts until you leave. Mine was a nice picture frame that was decorated Indian style. We then went back to our hotel and had lunch with several of their managers and supervisors. It was a great chance to have some more casual conversation and I really liked the people. They are very nice and easy to talk to. After lunch business was done.
They realy wanted to show us around Mumbai but since we already had a tour the ladies in the group steered us toward shopping. They arranged for some cars and one of the guys from Tata named Adi acted as our guide. We visited several different stores and I saw a different side of Mumbai. Many places are still a little run down on the outside but you are often surprised to find out that once you go inside the buildings they are really pretty nice. I guess you just have to know where to go.
We went to a department store that was much like a US store like a Macy's or a Mervyn's. It was much smaller and it was broken up into different departments. The store was clean and modern on the inside. One things that is really irritating about shopping in India is that all the people are like used car salesmen and it is difficult to just browse around. For example, if you go by the jewelry department they are very insistent that you go in and they want to show you things. Much like the people selling stuff on the street they have a problem taking no for an answer. The women in the group were much more into the shopping and the guys tried our best to avoid anyone who worked there. Since we had 2 cars me and the other 2 guys talked our way into separating and had one car take us back to the hotel. We are going to meet up for dinner but I have some down time to hang out in my room. I am not really sure what is going on tomorrow but I am pretty sure I will have to spend some time with the actual artists showing them how we do things at ILM.
I added a couple of pictures. You will notice an entire family riding on one motorcycle. You see this all over the place. It is crazy to see the women sitting side saddled on the back of a motorcycle holding a baby while they weave in and out of heavy traffic. I have no idea how they don't fall off.
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