Thumbs Down for "Thums Up"

My morning brightened considerably on my way back from breakfast. The elevator is finally working! In I went and up to the third floor. That is when things went awry. The elevator doors would not open. To boot, none of the buttons in the elevator (including "door open" and "alarm") would function. The elevator is not the size of a US elevator - it is best described as a "slightly roomy coffin on a string" and would be close quarters for 2 people. It began to feel much more like a coffin to me at this point. I thought about yelling for help, but as I could see light through the crack in the door and figuring I had nothing else to lose, I used my hands to pry the doors apart. It so happens that the elevator was level with the floor (my floor even) so I slid out with great relief and took the stairs when leaving for the day.

We got a lot done at the office today. I went through some complicated processes regarding expert location and content management and was glad to have spent the time. These were complex processes that required a lot of explaining and generated some good questions that I have to send back to the customer.

The driver took me a different way home tonight and we went through an area just up the road from our office that was all tech compounds. I say compounds because every office building is walled and gated and has private security. Walls are ubiquitous in India. Almost every house is surrounded by a wall of some sort with yard between them. The walls are, however, generally only 4 feet high or so and are not used so much for security as it is to demark the boundary of the property. I guess it is good if you want to let your kids play in the yard when they are young. You don't have to worry about them running into the streets - you just need to be worried about the cobras that are hiding in the flower beds.

Ascendum is in it's own compound in India. We lease all 4 or 5 floors of the building, so it is just us. There is very limited parking here, so Ascendum actually provides bus / car service to all of it's employees, except for a few that drive motocycles and scooters.

There is plenty of room to expand and put a parking lot in across the street from our building, however.

Today for lunch, my friends took me to a "Hotel". A hotel simply means that it offers food - it basically is just another word for restaurant. This place served "Andhra" style food from the south of India, which is spicier than typical Indian food and usually served on giant leaves. Sadly, we were late to lunch and they were out of leaves, so we had to rough it and use plates. I also tried a "Thums Up" cola. This pop is made by Coke, but is a local India soft drink. Don't try it - it tasted like Coke mixed with Formaldehyde.

I took the elevator again tonight (what's the definition of insanity again?) and it stopped at the correct floor and the doors opened all by themselves! Score one for Rich.