SD Best Practices India 2007: It's A Wrap

Upon walking back into the office on my first day after returning from India, the response of the Dr. Dobb's staff was "You've been gone? Ah, sorry, didn't notice." And that from the boss.

But a great trip it was, if you don't count the spiced buttermilk served on Kingfisher Airlines on the flight from Hyderabad to Chennai. I was able to meet face-to-face some readers I'd traded email with for years, not to mention making lots of new friends. All in all, the trip was wonderful, something that my traveling companions Scott Meyers, Hugh Thompson, Ken Pugh, and Andrew Stellman, will agree with.

But the trip wasn't just entertaining, but it was educational too -- and not just for the conference attendees, but me too. Recall that I did share a few things I learned in and about India. Here are a few more odds and ends:

• On the plane coming home, somewhere around Chicago, the guy in the seat next to mine says:

  Him: Where you flying from?

  Me: India.

  Him: Me too.

  Me: Hmmph.

  Him: IT or pharmaceuticals?

  Me: IT.

  Him Pharmaceuticals.

• WiFi in the hotels was really good -- better than most hotels in the U.S. that I've stayed at. And cheaper -- I think. Let's see, 30 rupees is how much in dollars?
• The software developers we met in all three cities -- and we met hundreds of them -- were really, really sharp. Both Scott Meyers and Hugh Thompson said that the post-presentation questions they were peppered with were sophisticed and challenging.
• As high-tech and modern as some areas are -- the Microsoft and IBM (and others) buildings in Bangalore were gleaming glass towers -- the contrast was at times amazing. For instance, a few blocks from our hotel in Bangalore, I ran across cubby-hole businesses with treadle sewing machines that were smokin' they were sewing so fast.
• Yahoo India is hiring. How do I know? Because the company bought the back of the Jet Airways boarding passes on our flight from Chennai to Bangalore.
• Here's a tip: If you want to assert an aura of authority at an authentic ethnic Indian resturant like Tandoor, don't order a Cinderella. Fruit juice and soda sounded fine when I saw it on the menu. But it was the little paper umbrella stuck in the glass that had everyone pointing their fingers at me. And I wonder why I'll never be a boss.
• And I never did rent a scooter. Come on, do you really think someone who orders a Cinderella would make it on the streets of Bangalore?

Okay, it's time to put a wrap on it and get ready for Dr. Dobb's Best Practices Russia. (Hmm, I wonder how you say "Cinderella" in Russian?)

Posted by Jon Erickson at 12:07 AM  Permalink