Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The Yin and Yang of it

(Also posting from many days back)

So… I have finished two days of work at R&H India :) I have found the yin to my yang. It feels like the piece that was missing really. What a place. Vani has decorated it so beautifully… the pictures didn’t do it justice… and the atmosphere is wonderful. I will take some photos myself and post them (sometime!). It’s not just the look of the place but the people that really make it. Everyone is so happy and friendly. Many smiling faces…. pretty girls and cute boys ;) I have been made to feel so welcome. The first day was a big tour around with introductions. It is going to take a long time to get to know names…. which I feel guilty about. I will study the intranet people pages as often as I can. Catching up with the admin guys who looked after me on my day of arrival was lovely, and then meeting people I had only seen on the small tv screens of the video conferences was such a nice change. I sat in on the orientation of 3 new animators… very thorough going through the employee handbook item by item. It reminded me of the old Rhythm and Hues and the values we used to hold so dear but seem to have lost. I feel this is the place we used to aspire to be…. actually working and existing. Sigh…. very inspiring. It’s a great workplace and you can see how much people seem to enjoy it - at least from my initial viewing.

At lunchtime Vani and I went around the corner to the InOrbit mall… one of two monster malls next to the building Rhythm is in. OMFG! Now.... This place makes the malls I see in the US look pretty pathetic… Fox Hills was always a dump but looks like a hovel next to this beautiful sparkling diamond of a place. Wow…. And I’ve never seen a foodcourt like that :) I intend to try every single place in it… except for the boring Ruby Tuesday’s ;) puh-leeze!! We ‘um and ah’ about what to have and decide on dosa’s …. A masala dosa for me.. delicious! Too full for a falooda for dessert. Some other time. Am I going to balloon up to the size of a buffalo while I’m in India???!! Gulp! Hehehe

The afternoon I hit a wall of the tireds…. ( jetlag catching up again) but I last out until it’s time to go home and see Arun who has arrived from the LA office via his hometown Coimbatore. His flight was cancelled and he got in late..so it was great to see him when I got home. We ordered Chinese food to be delivered and then both crashed kinda early. I was nodding off as we waited for the food to arrive (you gotta love all the delivery in Bombay!). Did the dishes a little ineffectively in cold water… no hot water in the kitchen. :P have to get used to not having a dishwasher for a while. Good practise for me to actually do some labour eh? Haha

Today the car was on time and we headed off to work.. Arun’s first day. We went to some dailies for the Museum gag shots and he was introduced. We had quite a few meetings about apprenticeship stuff, and the plans for our time etc. All sounds good and productive. It’s very odd having office boys running after us bringing glasses of water if we need it, or coffee, or cutting up fruit or anything. I just don’t need to be waited on hand and foot… I want to do it back to them! It’s lovely but I just don’t know how to receive it without returning the favour! They are so kind!

We had lunch at the mall with Vani. This was super special! A Rajasthani thali…. A big metal tray with lots of little metal bowls that were constantly replenished with tasty delicious spicy veg curries and lots of rotis and things for dipping etc. So damn yummy…. I stuffed myself! Dessert I had rasgulla - a round ball, bread-like consistancy in sweet syrup. YUM ….. most excellent. Arun seemed very happy to be having that food :) Only thing is it knocked us out and we were yawning ourselves silly all afternoon! Teehee.


We got the apprenticeship training shot rendering with the help of the genius pipeline guys Sam Nair and Satish - who was constantly at our side … both so helpful and lovely. I am really impressed… I haven’t had help like this before. Instant and completely dedicated! Yay India office… you rock!

I had an email from my friend Jesh who went to the same CG school as I did in Toronto. He and his wife live here (he has an animation business) and he was in the area so he dropped by. We hadn’t seen each other since about 1999 or so… but it was like yesterday! Just great…and the amazing coincidence was that they live in the same apartment building as Arun and I!! Freaky...a city of 17 million people?!

5:30pm couldn’t come quickly enough…. jetlag again…. for both of us I think. Arun is now lying down and sleeping. I’m listening to my ipod and planning on an early night. I hope I can sleep better… still only getting about 4 hours a night. Joy of joys. They say we may get internet hooked up at the apartment tomorrow. I sure hope so…. I’m in withdrawal without it. Especially since all these sites are blocked at work… including YouTube! Eeeks ;)

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