Yahoo!ing in India

I’m currently in Bangalore, India for business. Yahoo! formed a software development center here about 3 years ago, and now the office has about 130 engineers.

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I arrived a few days ago, but have been so busy with work that I haven’t had time to post any pictures. This is my first trip to India (actually, my first trip to any part of Asia). The Y! office is located on Mahatma Gandhi Road, which is one of the busiest streets in downtown Bangalore.

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Inside the office looks about the same as the Y! corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale. The cubicle walls are lower, but the purple-and-yellow (and grey) color scheme is much the same. Here are Badi and Kalyan in a typical 4-person bullpen cube:

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I arrived Wednesday morning, took a tour of the office, met with my team to do a short presentation, and made it back to the hotel around sundown before going to sleep. Thursday and Friday I gave presentations to a larger group of new employees introducing them to a wide variety of proprietary Yahoo! technologies.

On Thursday night after work we went to see a theater group called MISFIT perform three short plays. Very entertaining. We were planning a trip to Mysore today but unfortunately I’m not feeling very well, so we’ll probably go next weekend. I spent the entire day Saturday at the hotel in bed with a fever and dizzyness. Feeling slightly better today, but now I’ve got intestinal issues. Guess I should’ve heeded Venkat’s advice and avoided fresh fruits and vegetables. Hope to be feeling better tomorrow.

One thing I’ve noticed reading the papers here is that Indians really like puns. Coverage of the recent elections has been peppered with groan-inducing headlines like “Singhing in the Reign” and “In Sihkness and in Health.”