Yours Truly at the Pune Marriott’s rooftop bar, as he writes this article.
नमस्ते (Namaste) from India! I’m in the city of Pune for the week, working out of GSG’s Indian office. You should expect travel-related blog posts here for the next few days.
It’s closing in on 9:00 p.m., Monday, November 2nd, 2015 as I write this, but back home in the Eastern Standard Time zone, it’s closing in on 10:30 a.m.. In either case, the working day isn’t done as far as I’m concerned; there are presentations to be made tomorrow, and I’m putting the finishing touches on them. At least I get to work at Paasha, my current favorite watering hole, located on the hotel’s roof, where the staff are incredibly helpful, and the DJ is spinning some chill OONTZ OONTZ OONTZ music.
I’m part of the visiting U.S. management team, so I’ve got to wear the standard hot Asian country business outfit, which is dress shirt, dress slacks, dress shoes, skip the jacket and tie. This is India, where you can go a little funkier with the shirt, but even in these more egalitarian times, and even though it’s an IT office, I’m wearing long sleeves for the first few days just to make it clear that yes, I am a director from the U.S. office:
What hip jet-setting Asian-American businessmen are wearing these days.
Pune’s about as warm as Tampa, but way less humid, so long sleeves aren’t even a problem for me here. It hit 32°C (90°F) today, and this evening, it’s a nice 20°C (70°F) with a slight breeze.
The company’s having a big-ass all-hand party this Thursday, and we’re expected to dress up, so we went shopping for proper attire, and as a bonus, we can expense our formal duds! We hit a number of local shops looking for kurt-pajamas. I liked this one, but I needed something a little more flash:
This one wasn’t bad…
I also liked this one:
I checked out some turbans, but it turns out that we’ll be presented with some as visiting management guests at the party:
I finally went with this kurta and threw in a stole for added flair. Just call me the Accordion Maharaja!
