Samsung Visit

Last Friday (May 18th) we went to visit Samsung's plant in Noida and let me say that I was very impressed. It's actually the world's most efficient plant for Samsung. Some of the VPs showed us the production line for flat screen TV, I was speechless. Most of the line is human labour, since labour here is so cheap, more than 50 employees dedicated their days assembling Tv's. All of them have only one specific task, for example one would put 2 components on the assembly board... they manufacture about 6000 Tvs a day, so that means that person made the same movement 6000 times every day. One thing that is very hard to manage is of course your employees, especially when your whole production relies on them, so the managers implemented rewards systems which is now proven to be successful. We have a lot to learn from theses poeple as their economy will literally blow us away, no doubt about it. The efficiency of the employees is simply out of this world, one Tv is packaged every 4.5 seconds or less...manually. The manager implemented a superstar recognition systems, the most efficient employees are called superstars, theses superstar are so good, they could do their job eyes closed as they know exactly where to screw or put a component in one motion, simply unbelievable to watch.

Pimp my room

When we first got to Delhi, we were staying at the Jukaso Inn and found out that it was a shithole for the price we were paying, eventhough it was well above my budget range, so we moved out to go to the hotel next door which was just a little bit more expensive but a whole lot more luxious. Flat screen TV, minibar, etc, this room is all that! The indians still seem to be amazed by me, although is mostly the men, which validates my theory that most indians are gay. There always taking pictures of me and complimenting me (for my height and biceps they say), I find it pretty weird though it does elevate my ego...

The food here is delicious, pretty spicy but delicious. Until Thursday, I felt great, strong as a lion, and went alone to this small all you can eat thali place to test my stomach. BIG MISTAKE, I'm not quite ready for the real indian food (we've been eat in top notch restaurant the whole time so far), so now I don't feel as good but hey, I'm still not running for bathrooms, so it ain't that bad. Let me show you what a Thali looks like:

One thing that has struck till now is how safe I feel over here, eventhough there is flagrant poverty I don't quite feel in danger nor affected by them. The contrast is sometimes staggering as we leave top notch restaurant where I cancel a bill of more than 15 000 rupees for the group and then end up in a street full of people who live with less than a 100 rupees per day that sleep in the streets. I sometimes feel quite guilty but that's how it is over here, lots of people are extremely poor. It also unbelievable how so many people of distinct religions live harmoniously together, most are Hindus (more than 70%), but still no one complains about anything, there are so many mosques and churches but it all coexists without any conflicts... unlike Montreal.

Jama Masjid, India's biggest mosque in Old Delhi.

We've made 5 industrial visit so far (SNC-Lavalin, Indian Institute of Technology, High Comission of Canada, Indo Canadian Consultancy Service and Tata cy Service), they were all very interesting as they've all showed us how India has to improve and what makes them so strong for the future. Electricity is a major need in India as power shortage is so common, for example in Delhi, there are at least 4 power shortages every day, and out of the city, you are lucky if you have more than 4 hours of electricity per day. The IT industry is booming in India, and some of the world's most renouned IT firms are here enjoying this major workforce.

Poly-India at SNC-Lavalin

We spend the rest of our time visiting Delhi, so far we've done pretty much everything, here a photo of Qutab Minar, Delhi's first mosque site.

Never again will I complain about traffic in Montreal as the circulation here is out of this world! Never again will I complain about a crowded place as there is a shitload of people EVERYWHERE in this country. Never again will I complain as I have experienced total chaos.

फर्स्ट दय इन देल्ही

You can't read the title? Neither can I! First day in Delhi, it says, pretty far fetched ain't it. It tooks us over 30 hours to get to Delhi (flight and transit), 4 different flights (none was on time), 3 transits (New York, London, Kuwait), so I'm pretty jetlagged at this point. Travelling with Kuwait Airways was great, cheap and empty, I upgraded myself to business class on some flights. We got to Delhi at 7:30am and spent the whole day walking around the city, pretty hardcore for a first day. The heat in Delhi isn't quite as unbearable as I thought it would of been. I haven't seen that many sacred cows yet nor did I get a good wiff of those "pee walls" (thanks to my sinus problems). The food is really tasty and quite spicy. There is one thing though, there is a shitload of people here, one can't imagine. They're quite friendly in overall and don't bother you as much as long as you stay firm and say NO. Kids are fun, they like posing for pictures. They seem to be more impressed by me than I am of them, I may have posed in more photos for Indians than they have for me... I find it quite funny as some Indians are shy to take a picture of me. They also stare a lot, perhaps more than in South America. Another thing that struck me is that Indian men are so GAY. Men actually hold hands while walking in the streets as a sign of friendship. And it's no macho man hand holding and they're not quite the machoman looking type of people. That's about it for now, I'll try to keep my blog updated with many pictures.