Martin spent some time in Kolkata (formally Calcutta) working for NMS Communications on a new project. Wow! And how mind-blowing a place is India? That's a rhetorical question btw......
Getting there turned out to be the first challenge. Martin was flying Emirates from Gatwick via Dubai. But.... the inbound flight to Gatwick from Dubai was delayed by 5 hours due to fog in Dubai and so Martin arrived in Dubai for his connection 5 hours late. And... there's only 1 flight to Kolkata a day from there so he was stuck in Dubai airport for 21 hours waiting for the next flight! Luckily those nice Emirates people put him in the first class lounge where he got a private room with bed and shower for a few hours. Oh and the buffet and bar were free, so all was not lost :-)
Arriving in Kolkata at about 8am on the 27th and getting to the hotel was really very mind-blowing (that phrase again). It's a one hour drive by small and bumpy mini-van/taxi, driven at break-neck speed along Kolkata's busy roads and with no discernible rules being followed by anyone. Gulp! Still, Martin arrived in one piece at the very nice Taj Bengal hotel.
NMS amigos Christophe, Yograj, Carl and Abhishek were in Kolkata and Martin met up with them at breakfast (actually, Carl was in a different hotel and we picked him up later) and then we all headed up to the BSNL data centre in a car driven ... at break-neck speed etc etc. Yup, that's the way driving is done in Kolkata! On the second day, also spent in the data centre (mmmm, no windows, freezing cold, shoes not allowed!) Martin took his camera along and the first set of pics are of that day.
After a few days of working very hard (until 4am one day) it was finally the weekend. And... it was the Hindu festival of Holi (AKA Festival of Colours) on the Saturday. So the second set of pics are of a morning and afternoon exploring a super-colourful Kolkata. The camera was left snug and safe at the hotel for the evening's adventures. Enjoy! Oh, and click on the pics to view or download the original, full size photo.
February 28th 2007
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| Our car and driver, waiting to take us from the Taj Bengal to the data centre |
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| Kolkata is full of bright yellow "Ambassador" taxis, apparently made in India to the same design for donkey's years. They're *really* cheap to travel in as well. Christophe thought they were just a little small inside...his own fault for being 6'6"! |
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| They like their buses of all shapes and sizes too. There's also a tram service that Christophe and I used later that week and even a metro, though we didn't use it. |
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| There's a good reason why the drivers all have statues of Hindu gods on the dashboard! |
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| Another bus. Note that it is in fact a different shape and size to the other one! |
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| The BSNL data centre where we worked some of the time |
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| Oooh! Geek alert, geek alert! It's a photo of the cabinet full of the servers that host our system. Well some of them anyway. Other boxes live elsewhere in other data centres around the country. Aren't they nice? |
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| Freezing. No windows. And no shoes allowed (clean environment). What a nice place to spend your day. Happily, when we didn't actually need to be physically there we could work from the hotel and access the machines from there. We found room service at the hotel to be much better than at the data centre :-) |
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| Martin's lunch! Excellent Aloo something-or-other and a paratha. This was at a nearby mall in a nice district of Kolkata |
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| See? Wat a nice district... |
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| Martin in his office. OK, so it's really a space between server cabinets with part of a desk shared with Christophe. Luxury! |