First working day

Now it’s time for few words about company I work for and my experiences there. I arrived on monday to TCS office in Air India Building, Narman Point, Mumbai, and straight after that started with my registration procedures (access to system, registration at foreign office, get a mobile number, computer, desk, etc), so I spent almost whole my day traveling between TCS office and few other buildings, to finish all obligations I had.

The longest and most “painfull” was at FRRO office (place where you need to register as a foreigner in order to stay in the country legaly during your stay). I waited there for 4 hours! Just for three stamps and signatures. Couldn’t simply believe how slow was it. Knowing how it works in Serbia (public administration a.k.a. “shalterushe”), I wanted first to see the process. They explained me I need to fill some forms and pay 150 Rs. in total, and after that they will call me in the office to finalize the registration. I got number 4, which means I was 4th in the que.

And I waited, waited, waited, waited, and waited some more, hours passed, and after the 3rd hour, I realized, it’s not important the que number you get at the entrance, but the ability to be annoying and just forget that there is the line. So, stupid me (to put it that way, cause I needed 3 hours to figure out something that can be seen from the plane…but forgive me, I’m just a foreigner ), decided to try finishing it the Serbian way (which included small talk with the lady from the registration office and some sad story of how I’m late for some important meeting, and that I wait for 3 hours). Of course, these stories (even dough it is true story, I didn’t made up all of it), allways work, like in Serbia, and you get job done very fast.

After that I returned to office and had my first real Indian lunch. My god, how hot and spicy food can be (and I got little/medium spicy meals, I can just imagine how big hell in your stomach can be if you get realy spicy food)! By luck, there is one drink based on yogurth called Lassi, that is perfect to drink after hot’n’spicy food, and you don’t feel a thing.

My day ended with getting a prepaid mobile card and a meeting with agenda team for ACE conference (I’ll explain that later).

One interesting thing that happend when I was getting my mobile card at Vodafone, was the buying process! First, it’s highly organized, you get a token number, than they call you for a one-on-one meeting with the manager. Perfection! But….there is a big but, of course :-). You need to submit tons of papers just to get one small pre paid card! In Serbia it’s easy, you go to the paper stand or any shop at any corner, you give the money and in 30sec card is yours. In India, you need to fill some forms, give your passport, 2 photos (in some states in India, you need even more documents). Crazy! But OK, I did it, payed, and got my number. Now I’m mobile in India

After that, we went to Juliana’s place (she is my collegue in TCS, we run ACE program together), to meet with the rest of the agenda team (Gabriela, Alina, Nihan and Anna). We needed to get updates about the conference state so each one of us is on the right track. You can’t believe how this is the same as making any kind of agenda for conferences in AIESEC. The same things, same topics, just the environment is different.

It pays off being an MC member sometimes