6:24pm
As expected, today was a nice change of pace from the past few days of schoolwork. I did my usual workout then went to yoga class and had breakfast. Around 10:30, Neil came to the hotel with a taxi to take us out for some sight-seeing. The taxi took us about an hour south of the city to one of India's many enormous IT corridors. Here, the world's top IT/ITES companies like TCS, Cognizant, IBM, Accenture, Wipro, etc. have at least one incredibly large office building. TCS has several buildings in this corridor which they lease or own. The most impressive building in the corridor is TCS's massive, modern campus that looks more like an NFL stadium from the outside. Some of these office buildings make normal office buildings look like dumps. Since the structures have all sprung up over the past decade or so, many of them have very modern architectural design. If you are ever wondering if the IT industry in India is making enough money, just one look at these facilities will assure you that they aren't strapped for cash. Here's the rendering of TCS's campus. See what I'm saying?
And this is just in Chennai. There are campuses like this all over Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. Neil did his best to get us inside one of the offices, but had no luck. They keep pretty tight security around the buildings in the IT corridor. Hopefully we'll get the chance to tour one of the big offices in another city.
With little time before our scheduled lunch at the hotel, we headed back into the city. We ate another good meal and hopped back in the taxi. This time, we headed in the opposite direction towards the older part of Chennai where the original city was located hundreds of years ago. Our first stop here was at Chennai Central railway station. This is one of the major train stations in the country which helps support India's railway network that is now one of the largest in the world. The station was pretty crowded as expected and it wasn't even the busiest time of day. It was interesting to see people of all different income status, from the very poor to the upper-middle class, waiting to get on a train. The trains that travel across the country are divided into sections from first-class down to unreserved. The ticket prices can vary greatly depending on how fancy you want your ride to be. For unreserved (the lowest level), tickets across the country can cost around 4 or 5 bucks. If you want luxuries such as air conditioning and your own space to breath, you will have to pay closer to 40 or 50 bucks. This was the first time I have seen trains almost entirely made up of passenger cars that go on for over 600 meters. We walked through the train station to meet our taxi driver on the other side. It was here we saw the billboard that you will see below promoting pregnancy in women up to age 50. We thought this was interesting to see in a country that is struggling with the issue of overpopulation.
Next, we headed to Fort St. George. This is a British fort that was built in 1644 to help protect their trading port and the city in case of an attack from the sea. The expansive fort is still in working order today and is where the state government assembly and secretariat are located. In fact, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu was in a meeting at the fort while we were there and we got to stand in the crowd as her motorcade of expensive cars and armed guards left the fort. I can't imagine any state governor in the U.S. being treated like such a celebrity.
From the fort we drove around old Chennai to see how different everything is compared to where we're staying. Many of the original buildings from the 17th century are still being used, and it really gives you an idea of what India used to look like way back in the day. After driving around a little more, we headed back to the hotel. The fun is over we're back to doing schoolwork.
Entrance gate to one if the local Universities. For some reason, I only have a picture of the left half of the gate.
One of the huge apartment complexes near the IT corridor
TCS's stadium-like office buildings
Government building turned hospital
Very old tombs in the yard of the church in Fort St. George
As expected, today was a nice change of pace from the past few days of schoolwork. I did my usual workout then went to yoga class and had breakfast. Around 10:30, Neil came to the hotel with a taxi to take us out for some sight-seeing. The taxi took us about an hour south of the city to one of India's many enormous IT corridors. Here, the world's top IT/ITES companies like TCS, Cognizant, IBM, Accenture, Wipro, etc. have at least one incredibly large office building. TCS has several buildings in this corridor which they lease or own. The most impressive building in the corridor is TCS's massive, modern campus that looks more like an NFL stadium from the outside. Some of these office buildings make normal office buildings look like dumps. Since the structures have all sprung up over the past decade or so, many of them have very modern architectural design. If you are ever wondering if the IT industry in India is making enough money, just one look at these facilities will assure you that they aren't strapped for cash. Here's the rendering of TCS's campus. See what I'm saying?
And this is just in Chennai. There are campuses like this all over Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. Neil did his best to get us inside one of the offices, but had no luck. They keep pretty tight security around the buildings in the IT corridor. Hopefully we'll get the chance to tour one of the big offices in another city.
With little time before our scheduled lunch at the hotel, we headed back into the city. We ate another good meal and hopped back in the taxi. This time, we headed in the opposite direction towards the older part of Chennai where the original city was located hundreds of years ago. Our first stop here was at Chennai Central railway station. This is one of the major train stations in the country which helps support India's railway network that is now one of the largest in the world. The station was pretty crowded as expected and it wasn't even the busiest time of day. It was interesting to see people of all different income status, from the very poor to the upper-middle class, waiting to get on a train. The trains that travel across the country are divided into sections from first-class down to unreserved. The ticket prices can vary greatly depending on how fancy you want your ride to be. For unreserved (the lowest level), tickets across the country can cost around 4 or 5 bucks. If you want luxuries such as air conditioning and your own space to breath, you will have to pay closer to 40 or 50 bucks. This was the first time I have seen trains almost entirely made up of passenger cars that go on for over 600 meters. We walked through the train station to meet our taxi driver on the other side. It was here we saw the billboard that you will see below promoting pregnancy in women up to age 50. We thought this was interesting to see in a country that is struggling with the issue of overpopulation.
Next, we headed to Fort St. George. This is a British fort that was built in 1644 to help protect their trading port and the city in case of an attack from the sea. The expansive fort is still in working order today and is where the state government assembly and secretariat are located. In fact, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu was in a meeting at the fort while we were there and we got to stand in the crowd as her motorcade of expensive cars and armed guards left the fort. I can't imagine any state governor in the U.S. being treated like such a celebrity.
From the fort we drove around old Chennai to see how different everything is compared to where we're staying. Many of the original buildings from the 17th century are still being used, and it really gives you an idea of what India used to look like way back in the day. After driving around a little more, we headed back to the hotel. The fun is over we're back to doing schoolwork.
No comments:
Post a Comment