How I worked in India as a web developer for a contract

Foreword

Hello, my name is Alexander Zelenin and I am a web developer. In early 2012, I received a job offer (nodejs, frontend and everything connected with it) in India. In general, I liked this idea. You can gain experience (including language), and relax in an exotic country.

I try to cover to the maximum, ask for details in the comments. Dates and time I write about. Unfortunately, the archive of photos is on another computer, which I will get access to only in a couple of weeks. I spread what is. As a result, a not quite technical story came out, but I hope it will be interesting.

After completing the interview, they sent me a contract for six months and began preparing papers for obtaining a visa.

Attempt # 1

A few weeks later the documents were ready. After filling in a pile of forms for obtaining a work visa and forming a package of documents (forms, contract, proof of qualification, diploma, permission from the company to hire employees from other countries, financial statements of the company, etc.), I went to a courier agency and sent everything to Moscow

The next day, the documents were delivered to the embassy, but they were not accepted, as some piece of paper was still missing. Over the next few days I supplemented, clarified and corrected all the documents, sending all the same courier agency.

The task was also complicated by the fact that I only had a secondary special education, but it was saved by the fact that it was specialized. "Link" on the Internet at the embassy do not want to watch.

The task turned out to be much more nontrivial than it seemed. Even though everything necessary was provided, they even refused to accept the documents.

After a heap of time spent, I refused to go to work in India and withdrew the documents.

Rainy summer

I live in Kaliningrad. The weather here is quite changeable due to its proximity to the sea. So it turned out that more than half of the summer (about ~ 55 days in a row) either it rained or it was very gloomy. Despite the good flow of orders, the picture outside the window gradually drove into depression.

Without hesitation for a long time, I wrote to Skype guys from India to inquire how they were doing. It turned out that during this time they had already transported several Russian children from different cities and, in general, set up a scheme of interaction with the embassy.

This time I suggested to a friend to take part in this venture, he agreed. After going through the interview (and me again) they gave contacts to the agency that prepares the documents.

This time, they sent me a reimbursement of expenses for the previous time and money to pay for agency services. The transfer took quite a long time, due to the peculiarities of the banking system in India (it is easy to bring money into the country, but not to take it).

Attempt # 2 - success

Written off with the agency, discussed the conditions, sent all the documents. Services cost around 20 thousand rubles for two (or slightly less, not the essence). Another week went to bring everything in order, translation of the diploma and other actions, after which everything was sent to Moscow.

This time the documents were accepted immediately. The website of the embassy said that work visas are considered in a period of 3 to 5 days, which turned out to be false. In general, it took several weeks.

And then, finally, came the passports with visas.

For some reason, the photo on the visa was “flattened” vertically - this distortion made me a bit like an Indian.

Way

Mid October. Bags are collected, documents are prepared, tickets Kaliningrad - Moscow - Dubai - Delhi on hand.

Aeroflot flew to Moscow, moved to Emirates and went to Dubai. The service, like the plane, was impressed. Salon looked like a starship from fantastic stories. In the backs of the chairs built-in computers with a bunch of movies and online games (inside the aircraft).

Upon arrival in Dubai went to get the bags, but they never arrived. Let's go find out where they went. We were informed that they would be immersed in our next direction and should not be worried. Apparently, this is a common practice, but I came across for the first time.

Before the flight to Delhi was ~ 18 hours. Emirates, when waiting more than 8 hours, provide a visa and a hotel free of charge Very cool, really.
In Kaliningrad, on the flight there was a temperature of around 5 degrees, so I, in order to save space in my suitcase, wore a winter jacket. The exit to the street was felt as an entrance to the sauna. 42!

They drove to the hotel, settled, had lunch. The plans were to visit the Burj Khalifa. Dressed in lighter clothes and went out. The high tower was in sight, and we thought that it was she, and that, in principle, not far away, we went. On foot. We, perhaps, were the only ones who walked there on foot. After a couple of kilometers (cooling off in closed bus stops with air conditioning), ofigev from the heat, we decided to take a taxi.

So, that huge tower was not Burj Khalifa, but just a skyscraper. To the destination was still about 10 km.

If you book a ticket in advance, a few days before the visit, the entrance is cheaper several times, but we were not sure about getting a temporary visa, so we did not risk it and eventually we paid $ 100 per person.

The view opens gorgeous. I can not believe that 20 years ago there was only a desert here.
We walked 3 km to the bay and drove to the hotel. From the hotel to the airport, and now we are flying to our destination - New Delhi.

First impressions

Arrived on the clock at 2 in the morning. They took the suitcases, went out into the street. Everywhere, where it is possible, people lie. Lot. O_O.
We pass by people with signs. Our names or something similar to the name of the company is not. Do some more laps. I call to meet - the number is not available. I call those who were engaged in buying tickets - they do not pick up the phone. O_O. Arrived!

But, fortunately, after about 30 minutes, some man runs up to us, asking by name. Found, already better!

He says that we are going to the hotel immediately and in the morning to work. After 20 minutes we arrive and accommodate. Everything is dirty, frayed, one bed, a shower like a monster from a horror movie.

Under the contract, we should have been provided with a hotel during the search for an apartment. Is it really her? Despite everything, tired, after the road, we go to bed. (Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures, being in light shock.)

At 8 in the morning they take us in and tell us that they will lodge in another hotel (whoosh!). We are going to Gurgaon - a city near New Delhi, in which, directly, is the company's office. What is interesting: almost all the services of Gurgaon are private - police / security, road works, etc.

Placed in a new hotel. 2 rooms, seemingly clean. Already better.

Immediately we go to the office: the roads, it seems, are good. In general, without holes and potholes, but everywhere it is very dirty, trash is lying around. We reach the office. This is directly opposite the entrance to the company:

On the territory of the company is very clean, especially in comparison with the previous photo. There is no garbage at all, bushes, grass.

We meet with the team, inspect the office.

We are given IBM Thinkpad laptops (with such a red button in the middle of the keyboard, which is, by the way, very convenient) preloaded with ubuntu. It’s more familiar and more comfortable for me to develop on Windows (with virtualboxes that are configured similarly to a “combat” server). After a couple of hours we get laptops on Windows, sim cards, advance and go to the hotel.

Very busy day. Feels like we're here for at least a week.

We get up early in the morning, have breakfast at the hotel. The same corporate driver comes after us and transports us to a new hotel (where we stayed before moving to the apartment). Go to work. The main project of the company is a large online store. The company is also engaged in the production, warehousing, delivery and, in general, everything related to the sale of goods.

We fill in different papers, we solve bureaucratic issues. We are told that we will need to quickly get something like our pension certificate - it takes a lot of places, even in hotels.

Pause

I decided that it was, nevertheless, worth writing, not in chronological order, but by topics. I apologize for such a transition.
I considered, basically, various difficulties that may arise. There were a lot of positive points, which I omitted in this article.

Food

Acquaintance with Indian food began with the plane Dubai - New Delhi.

Stewardess: Beef or chicken?
Me: Beef, please.
Stewardess: Sorry, only chicken available.
I: ... OK

Comes to the next row and everything repeats. So, there was only chicken curry with Indian spices. But very "lightweight", not very sharp.

At work, there were 2 lunch options: vegetarian and non-vegetarian. By the way, on absolutely all products there is a label - is it a vegetarian? It looks like a circle in a square. Green is vegetarian, gray is semi-vegetarian, red is not. Semi-vegetarian is using eggs, cheese and all other non-meat products.

Photos of the dining room:

Vegetarian option:

Top left - something like soy in a spicy sauce. Top middle - gravy with beans. Top right - salad. Yes, it is a salad. Looks like a mixture of cucumbers and tomatoes with milk or kefir diluted with water. Very good "extinguishes" burning after spicy food. At the bottom left - dessert, sweet rice in a sweet dairy product (condensed milk?). In the middle of the bottom side dish. Bottom right - cakes.

Local eat it with one hand without additional tools. For the first time I used a spoon, but after a while I fitted myself - quite comfortable. Right hand (yes, one) comes off a piece of cake and then they take what you are going to eat. After adjusting, it turns out to take even quite liquid sauces with a side dish without spilling. A sort of mini-shavermy. By the way, this way it is much tastier than separately.

The houses mostly cooked vegetables (peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms), simple side dishes (potatoes, rice) and semi-finished meat (something like a “golden rooster”).

In the mornings, men with such carts traveled around the area:

Vegetables have always been fresh and fairly cheap, and I have never seen so much rice to choose from. In the shops, whole racks of rice for every taste. Meat can be bought fresh, but in all, even the most elite, butcher shops, there is such a smell that desire disappears immediately. Meat semi-finished products were tolerable, but very far from ours. In the morning oatmeal, occasionally cooked pancakes or something else interesting.

For a week, the body was rebuilt on an unusual meal and was unhappy, but after a while the food lay down easily, and the whole body felt good.

Fruit disappointed. We can buy much more fresh and tasty. There were a few exceptions, such as mango and dragon fruit, but in the form of exceptions. Bananas, apples, peaches, pineapples and everything else did not look very good and the taste was the same.

Tea is cool. Home brought a few pounds. With a quarter of a tsp, the strongest cup of tea was obtained. With a whole spoon, a blinking liquid was obtained.

The hotel once ate chili chicken. After that, I never took anything with the addition "chili" in India. It was consumed not only during the meal.

Cafe / Restaurants

The way to choose the right place to eat is fairly simple: if a lot of people are already eating there, you can join in (with the exception, perhaps, of mobile ones). There are all kinds of coffee shops with lattes / cappuccino and muffins; There are quite European / American networks like Fridays and MacDonald's.

Once in a rather expensive restaurant, they ordered more or less European food and as soon as it was brought, a huge cockroach crawled out onto the column next to the table. We didn’t eat there anymore.

MacDonald's is all vegetarian, surprisingly. At the most - add an omelet to a burger. I have never seen a stranger assortment in a poppy. Everything is strange and incomprehensible, but quite tasty.

In the Fridays was the most European food of all, you could even eat an acceptable steak. Once I ordered a national dish there, I don’t remember the name. It looked like a set of different different fillings plus a side dish. I took a fork and started eating. A passing local grabbed his head and explained that I was eating wrong, this is a very cool dish. It turns out that under one of the plates were “pancakes” (not knowing, to guess their presence is almost unreal), in which it was necessary to wind everything up (or in the way with tearing off). And yes, it turned out to be much tastier.

On the street there are many where you can buy fresh juice for a penny - that was cool.

We mainly ate national food at work and traveling around the country with our boss. He advised that the unique can be tried in a particular region. Mostly dishes differed spices. Even the same spices in different parts of the country can have a very different taste. After two years, I can only remember paratha - a scone with a filling. Usually it is potatoes, greens or some tricky spices.

Prices

All products have a mandatory MRP label (maximum retail price). The maximum price is controlled by the state and, comparing it with the price in the store, it can be understood whether an adequate price is demanded from you. In some cases, the price was lower, even several times, but mostly corresponded to the MRP. In remote mountainous areas, the price could significantly exceed the MRP due to difficult logistics (100 km + along serpentine in the mountains).

The system is very convenient, in fact. Many stores do not even have price tags at all - they are guided by the price of the product.

On average, food per month was less than in Kaliningrad. I don't remember exactly, but no more than 12 thousand rubles for two a month.

The Internet cost 1000 rubles, with a limit of 40GB / month (further anlim 64 kb / s).

Renting an apartment with 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a hall, 2 balconies and a kitchen cost us about 15 thousand rubles. A neighbor came for utility costs, they paid what they said. But for the entire stay, it did not exceed 3,000 rubles. The gas cylinder was bought only once, cost less than a thousand rubles.

Bed linen cost some pennies at all, something like 200 rubles per set of cotton. Silk, cashmere. He is not cheap here. It is a myth. Now, taking into account globalization, everything is about the same everywhere. For a good cashmere scarf will have to pay about 8 thousand rubles. Souvenirs are usually sold near any attractions. Cost inexpensive. The carved elephant made of handmade stone in the size of a fist cost 150 rubles.

Tea is cheap and tasty. A kilogram of decent tea will cost 300-400 rubles.

Hotels

Hotels are quite paranoid, they require filling in a heap of information about themselves: from where, where, how much, who are they, for what purpose, and still ask for a photo.

By the way, the instant photo is the same as with us, but at the output you get not 2-4 photos, but 20-40. They also leave packs for any reason.

The price of stay varies greatly from the city. For example, in Agra we paid 500 rupees (300 rubles) in a hotel overlooking the Taj Mahal:

And in the mountains, in the village of Kasauli, night cost from 3500 rupees. But the view of the Himalayas was worth it:

Transport

Tuk-tuk - the most common type of "taxi". It is a three-wheeled open car. It costs about 10 rupees per kilometer (6 rubles). Before work, we were about 5 kilometers away. After learning how to bargain, we traveled for 50 rupees for two, before, once, paid 150.

There are normal taxis, but their price is higher. I never drove, so I can not say.

To rent a car in the classic sense will not work. Yes, and there are so many specifics of driving, which is not worth it. All rented cars are provided with a driver and otherwise. For a fairly simple car will have to pay 2-3 thousand rubles a day, plus a fee for gasoline, the distance traveled and a whole bunch more. Most drivers drive with high beams. Everyone is blind to each other, nothing is visible, but like this. At night, truckers can go even without dimensions - crashing into them - your problems. Gasoline save. Skated dozens of years, they know all the potholes and turns. Here it is.

Underground. Subway here is cool. Very clean, fast and runs on schedule. The queue for buying tokens is always big - it seemed to me very strange - it was enough to buy a card once and go at a lower price, without queues and problems. You could also return the card and get its full value. We lived near the last station of the branch, which went as far as Delhi. The road took about an hour.
In the subway, behind the entrance, behind a mound sits a man with a machine gun. Input through a metal detector.

Bus. On the bus, we just went to the corporate. Slowly, but for free.

A train. We traveled in several railway tours in such comfortable wagons:

In general, it was inexpensive, fed on the way, there was an opportunity to sleep. Train tours are a great solution to see the country. Tickets must be taken in advance - at least a week - otherwise there are no seats. Of the minuses: on the top shelf there are no windows, so lying and looking at the landscape will not work. Passenger trains are very long, I have never seen such, 30-40-50 cars and more.

Many locals choose scooters / motorcycles. Families of 5 or more people are loaded onto them, along the way in the hands of bags, suitcases, 5-meter building beams, etc.

Judging by the salons, some can afford Ferrari, how to transport it to / from the salon, I can not even imagine:

Bureaucracy

Any employee needs to get an analogue of our pension certificate. This is required for the correct payment of taxes, and the same is asked in almost any hotel. For almost six months we have not managed to get these papers. All information is filled out on a special website, a fee is paid, an application is sent. After a while they invite you to drive up, look at the documents and say that there is not enough document N from the company. The cycle repeats an infinite number of times until you get bored. And yes, each time the duty is paid. The last requirement was to provide a document with a residence permit. In the Russian Federation, apart from a civil passport, if I am not mistaken, none of them contain such information. Fortunately, I had scans that I submitted. The answer was: the documents have different names (Alexandr Zelenin and Alexander Zelenin). Of course, different, the language is different. It took a lot of time to travel.

Apartment Search

After about two weeks of living in hotels, the process of finding an apartment began. He presented the following: people from the company found options, they put us in a company car, and we went to see the options.

We tried a little to look ourselves, but the occupation was useless. All prices were not real, and what was real - did not communicate with foreigners. In general, apartments for foreigners are very reluctant to rent: they think that foreigners are all drug addicts.

The chains of realtors were huge. For each apartment the chain was at least 3 people. And the trip was consistent. Those. first to one realtor, then with him to the next, then to the next, and only then to the apartment.

We were looking for 2BHK, this is a 2-bedroom + hall + kitchen. I will note some funny options:
Quite a spacious "mirror" apartment with access to the roof (which type also indulged in order). They asked the owner about the cockroaches. He replied:
- Oh, you need cockroaches? Come here.
Led to the kitchen, showed the sink, closed mesh.
- You can call.
O_O. We then laughed at it for a long time.

There was also an option in the basement without light and furniture. The owner promised to organize everything. But that's how - it is not clear.

In the end, we stopped at a rather spacious, but very dusty apartment with two balconies. I will say right away - the balconies are useless, you should not overpay for them. There is always guaranteed dusty. Very dusty. Even if you wash everything, the next morning there will be a layer of dust. The owner promised to clean everything to our pick.

And so, the day of arrival. Filled all the papers at the hotel, paid for the food. Loaded, arrived.
Dust! Everything remained as it was. To go nuts.

Well, to hell with it. I didn’t want to twitch with the hotel, and I’ve already paid for it. We decided to wash it on our own. Along the way, the realtor, we still zadolbali, and he said that he would send people who will quickly do everything. In fact, a boy of 12 years old came, saying that he is super cool and will quickly make us “dusting”. To the campaign, this dasting meant that he would induce dust, because the benefits of it were exactly at all. His every step had to be controlled. He took a rag, rubbed 5 cm of the surface, stood, waited, looked and asked for a tip. An hour later, such agony (in passing, they washed everything themselves), we kicked him out — of course, without paying anything.

For the first day we managed to clean only the hall. We stayed in it and stayed.

In general, the apartment could lead to a more or less human sight in three days. Half of the light bulbs were not there and we demanded that the owner of their basic availability. They called every day and received an answer like: “And I am on my way, I will be there in 15 minutes!”. Of course, no one was driving. Normally, the light earned somewhere in a week, no less.

In the refrigerator lived lizard. Live. Hike it shit in him, and he smelled just unreal. Draili him a few days, burned matches, filled with solutions. It became better, but after a few months the stench manifested itself again. If any product was not tightly packed, it was soaked with this stench and could be thrown away.

We spent a month on breeding cockroaches and ants. Splashed, crushed, evicted.

The water filter in the kitchen did not change for an indefinite period; green water was flowing out of it. Substitutions have not been made, they drank bottled water.The last month was scored and drank from the tap, as a result of which my immunity subsided and it was possible to restore the old values only after a year, although the friend had no problems.

All food was put in airtight boxes or in a refrigerator. Otherwise there was a chance of re-breeding cockroaches / ants.

Bathrooms were 2, but in my, initially, the shower was not working. Within a month, they sent us a master who made it even worse (deleted everything except the hose from the shower), but the water went. In general, their water is free, you pay only for electricity. The pump pumps water into the tank on the roof and from there it is already supplied under pressure. There was also a problem with the pump, he shook at 1 liter per hour and ate electricity like mad. In this case, rustled like a tractor. A neighbor from the top came to us and helped to settle a lot of similar issues, dragging the worker's breasts and shouting in Hindi.

Despite the fact that it is, in fact, the capital of the country, the interruptions of electricity are constant here. 20 or more times a day for an indefinite period. More or less good apartments are equipped with besperebonikami. We have 1 socket, lights and fans working from a bespereboynik.
In principle, this was enough. The router worked from the outlet and, periodically, the laptops were charged.

The stove was gas, on cylinders. The cylinder had to be bought only 1 time. In general, it is convenient to use.

The door to the balcony was sliding. The gap was a couple of centimeters. Outdoor temperature = at home. In January, at +8, it was not very fun, to be honest. The heater worked without stopping. All the cracks were taped.

Mosquitoes. That was a tin. Dozens of mosquitoes prevented sleep. After a couple of months, I literally learned to catch them with two fingers. All sorts of fumigators did not really help, because New flew faster than the old dead. After pasting all possible gaps, the situation improved, but not much. Where did they come from - a mystery.

A friend in the morning on the window was a live weather indicator in the form of a lizard. If she was - the weather is good, it will be warm. If not, it's cool.

In general, in a month it was already possible to live comfortably.
When choosing an apartment, I advise you to turn on the following indicators in this order: neighbors, uninterrupted electricity (check all sockets with electricity turned off), water storage method (check the tank, check the pump), existing living creatures (it will take time to evict), equipment performance, equipment .

Hygiene

Drink water from bottles without leaning their lips to the bottle - pour from a short distance. I did not get the hand, everything shed on myself.
All toilets are equipped with a bidet function - an additional hose is connected to the toilet, which can be sent where needed. In fact, it seemed to me very convenient and practical. The idea is simple, it saves space, and everything is always clean. If anything, the hose was outside, not inside.

Tongue

In different regions of the country, people speak different dialects derived from Sanskrit. This leads to a problem, people do not understand each other. The state decided to make English common to the whole country. In most schools, starting from the third grade, all education takes place in English. Along the way, there is a study of the native language and, possibly, Hindi (if the native is not Hindi).

In general, the majority of the population understand and communicate in English, especially children. These guys spoke fluent English, but one guy occasionally gave out a couple of phrases in Hindi, for which his comrades beat him on the head and said that it was not beautiful to do so.

Most of the signage and advertising was in English, although in Hindi it was not a little. I studied Hindi for a while, learned to read slowly (without understanding the meaning), in order to be able to enter phrases into Google Translate.

mobile connection

At work, we were given 2 sim cards.
This amount of advertising I have never seen! Several messages per hour, and they came as a service - immediately displayed on the screen on top of everything. There were also regular calls from an unknown number. The robot waited for the sounds in the handset, after which it began to flood its spam in its ears. Also, these numbers belonged to other employees before, and someone regularly called us and started talking in Hindi. The phrases “Don't understand” they did not understand and continued. But in Russian “man, I do not understand what you are saying, let's speak English” helped, but not for long.

There is a very cool service called “do not call list”. When you register on this list, you will never come to the phone no advertising. The program is state, violators are severely punished. The problem is that for registration you need a lot of data, including the "pension", which could not be obtained. Bonus there turned off a number of useful features, such as bank alerts.

The interesting point here is that the towers do not belong to mobile companies, but to individual, private ones that already rent them out. As a result, all operators have absolutely identical quality of communication, as well as reduced costs for maintaining the entire infrastructure.

At the time of its operation, MTS was in the lead as a mobile Internet provider.

Holidays

Diwali, the celebration of the victory of light over darkness, is considered the largest here. It lasts 2 days. All that can be decorated with spices, rice and other food.

Everywhere hung colorful light bulbs.

And in the evening the fun begins. From about 18 o'clock and until sometime there at night, the whole city continuously fires up fireworks. Just all go out and start to let. From the roof it looks unreal cool and big. 2 days in a row fireworks the size of a city and lasting 8 hours. Wow!

A major holiday is also considered the day of victory over Pakistan. Parades, fireworks. Half of the capital is blocked, the movement only on foot. We never managed to get to the parade itself - the guards didn’t let go, because there was a camera (and also a tablet and phones, aah!). The parade was held around India Gate:

For the new year, we made Olivier and mimosa from improvised products and eventually got poisoned.

At work, you can take a weekend for 1 day (and not like ours, a week at least) and eventually turn the holiday lasting 2 days (Tuesday-Wednesday) into 5 consecutive days of rest, from Saturday to Wednesday.

Animals

There are many different animals walking on the streets: pigs, cows, monkeys, dogs, peacocks, etc. A bunch of different parrots, different healthy birds, with a wingspan of one meter. Chipmunks are everywhere.

But after this photo I had to quickly run away:

Chipmunks eat with hands. One of them bit a friend - he had to prick rabies shots for prophylaxis.

The temples

There are many temples for every taste.
You can only enter the temple barefoot. Next to most temples there is a place where you can pass shoes. Inside, everything is very beautifully decorated:

If you stand in line and pray - you get a point on the forehead + delicious nishtyachek. Tourists in temples are loved and, usually, poured in more or are given some big tasty treat. In principle, you can eat just by going to the temples.

One of the interesting “desire” rituals is necessary 3 (9, 127 depending on the difficulty) to go around the temple (not in all temples), praying. And there are tricks for those who are not able to do this: you can turn around yourself, for example. And even if this is impossible, it is enough to imagine in your head that you have done all this - and everything will be counted.

Everywhere it is written that it is impossible to touch the pictures, but all the locals, passing by, will surely stroke them.

Temple complex Chattarpur. By local standards, young, no more than 100 years.

They also visited Lotus Temple, in which the very young religion “The Bha'i Faith” is confessed. In general, by the way, quite interesting, peaceful and very logical. One of the ideas: you pray not for someone there, not for God, but only for yourself. Well, in general, encourages objective thinking. Inside the temple is silence, you can pray to any god, because as you don't call him, he is still the same. In this case, offend, anger, or something else is impossible.

An interesting point - proximity to especially sacred temples greatly increases the quality of the roads around and reduces prices. Officials in such areas almost do not steal, and in general people are much friendlier.

sights

These are mainly tombs and forts.

Qutub minar - it seems like the tallest tower in India (although it also says that it is just below the Taj Mahal) - 72.5 meters. Located in the "archaeological" park. The entrance is unreasonably expensive, especially since it is impossible to climb it.

Red fort (in New Delhi) is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. On the territory of several museums, mostly with weapons. A number of dilapidated buildings are labeled as “Unknown Destroyed Structure”.

Almost all guards are armed:

Taj Mahal - the entrance costs about 450 rubles. The territory is extensive and is still a botanical garden, which collected a large number of rare plants. In general, everything is very cool and definitely worth a look.

Red fort (in Agra). By the way, they have almost all the forts called Red Fort. It is always interesting to wander.

Tomb of Humayun. It is advisable to visit earlier than the Taj, otherwise not impressive.

Sariska National Park. Besides us from the Russians, there were only employees of the embassy. Open jeep safari:

miscellanea

On all the posters where something bad happens, a white person is always drawn:

In the evening in the mountains:

We brought 2 kg of delicious gingerbread as a souvenir. On one of the first working days, we brought all this and distributed it to developers within the team. Everyone was very surprised what it was. They asked if it was vegetarian, for most it was very important. We said with full confidence that yes, but after a couple of days we learned that the presence of eggs in the dish immediately makes it non-vegetarian. Excuse me.

After about 2 weeks we began to swear through the word in communication with each other. I do not know how it happened, but here. Never swore before. At all. And here it is. After another couple of weeks, they decided to get rid of bad habits and assigned 5 squats for 1 curse right where he cursed. In the bus, on the street, in the office, anywhere. Over the next 2 weeks, they stopped swearing at all.

The working process

In principle, we began to work actively only a couple of weeks after arrival. Despite the fact that at least half a day was in the office - too many organizational moments were distracting.

It was originally planned that we would help in finalizing the online store, but later decided to give us a separate task to develop a system of interaction between all departments and customers.

For several days I sat in technical support, studied how the process is now organized. Then also in stock, in delivery and other departments. When the task was more or less collected, we began to develop.

Everything worked on nodejs + socketio + MySQL (later replaced by MongoDB) on the backend, and twitter bootstrap + javascriptmvc (canjs, heavily modified) on the front end.

Outdated scheme, but more recent images, unfortunately, did not survive. In addition to mail, there were other external data sources, such as an online store and software in various departments. A cool feature was the modularity of the system. If something stopped working, fell off - did not affect the rest of the system. The only "point of contact" were the controllers. All components were run in a separate thread and communicated through sockets.

In general, this is a topic for a separate post.

By the end of January, we already had a more or less working system. Colleagues were quite skilled and significantly different from those found on the Internet for $ 1-2 per hour. There were no problems with interaction, everyone spoke pure English. Well, with a characteristic accent, of course, but it was much easier to understand them than native speakers.

In mid-February, the company in which we worked sold the larger one and we had to leave. Since the sponsor of our visa has ceased to exist.

Export of money

Take money out of India just can not. You can exchange rupees for dollars only if you have previously changed dollars into rupees, kept the check, and even that, no more than 25% of the original amount. Also, banks are not ready to give the entire amount immediately at all. The only way is to close all accounts. And yes, closing an account is also worth the money. The process is not very fast. After closing you get a paper describing how much the bank owes you. After that, all day you go around the city and get money in the offices.

The funny thing is that the money is issued in rupees, and not by large bills. It was as if we had robbed a couple of banks. Then the money was exchanged for dollars from a friend of a friend. I transferred $ 1,000 to myself at Payoneer, but the money came only after a month, and then I requested confirmation that I made the transfer: a photo of the card from both sides, a passport, etc. After closing the accounts, I immediately broke the card into 4 parts ... It’s good that I didn’t throw it away, and the security service did it.

In general, there were regular problems with the bank. They could suddenly block the account, could reset the password to another, and a lot of funny moments. Solving any of them required a personal presence at the bank, so leaving the map would be a terrible option.

Conclusion

I liked everything very much. To combine work and rest is possible, and even necessary.

Thank you for mastering this text, I hope it was interesting. Ask about anything - I will answer, I will add, I will tell.

Upd 1, album links:
vk.com/album1466715_164078616
vk.com/album1466715_166899123
vk.com/album1466715_167322271
vk.com/album1466715_168736211

Friend's album: vk.com/album53571851_164231066

Albums of the guy who was before us: vk.com/albums1555656

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/285664/

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