I'm in India!

Another blog about to get thoroughly lost in the forest. What's this one about? Well in a stunning bout of originality, this one is about ME! The reason for starting this is that I'm an English software engineer who has reverse-outsourced himself and I finds himself in Pune, India. And I'm vain enough to think that's interesting.

Pune is a pleasant city a couple of hours from Mumbai (ne Bombay) via an exciting three lane motorway that passes through the Western Ghats. Exciting? Well, the road is a pretty good quality three lane toll road that starts off as your standard highway. Then the Ghats happen. Think of an alpine road full of hairpin bends - now make that alpine road a motorway but leave in the hairpins. Add some steep inclines - your car will cope alright but the Indian trucks will be crawling up at walking pace. High speed differentials, Indian motoring discipline, hairpins and chicanes: told you it was exciting.

Pune itself is rather quiter. Surrounded by hills, at a reasonable altitude (560m) and away from the coast it has a much more pleasant climate than Mumbai. Still pretty hot, around 30C at the moment, but not humid and sticky. My flat has a small hill behind it and it is well worth the climb. Eagles soaring around the top eating unfortunate furry things and the whole of Pune and surrounding countryside is visible. There's also a small temple and tree picturesquely perched on the summit.

I've been at work for almost a week now and am getting along just fine so far. The office is quieter than the UK one - more heads down and work than the UK! Lunch is much better: vegetable curry, chapatti, rice and possibly a sweet is simply in a completely different league from a crummy sandwich from ASDA and even cummier service.

Home's not too bad either. A ten minute walk from the office beats rush hour driving between cities in the Midlands. The appartment's shared swimming pool is a nice touch too. Whisky at £4 a bottle goes down a treat, and of course nice sunny days in November are a welcome change to the grey rain of England. Not that homesick then.

That's enough for now. I'm writing this on my work laptop connected to the internet via a mobile. A home broadband connection has been ordered but things can move slowly here. Once that arrives my Macs will be online and I'll start adding some pictures to liven up the page.