Heading for home at 10pm

In the short ride to the sports bar where we were meeting Raja, Saj and I talked about his life since returning to India, and about the working lives of my offshore teammates.

Saj had lived in Charlotte for a while and worked on our system as a contractor. When Raja went back to India to set up the offshore team, he reached into the contractor firms and poached a number of the most knowledgeable resources as the foundation for his team.

Everyone came to employment for Raja with the knowledge that they would come to work at midday Chennai time, and then stay through about half of the US workday -- so they expect to leave for home at 9-10pm. M-F. This sounded OK on paper, and while everyone was still young. Yet as the realities creep in, it becomes taxing.

For example, most of our offshore team isn't assigned laptops as our US team is -- they work on desktops. So when working on a problem or when interfacing directly with a US teammate, though they have wifi at home for their personal electronics, they have to remain in the office.

Another thing -- more alarming to me, as I would never have thought of this issue-- is that the docile dogs I've seen trotting around or napping in the shade during the daytime, gang up into packs at night and run through the streets. This poses dangerous situations for our guys (and girls) who ride scooters and motorcycles (and especially bicycles!) to work. Imagine the terror of riding your scooter home, through dark streets, at 10pm, after a tiring day, only to be chased by a pack of feral dogs.

Another issue with traveling through the streets so late at night -- as I've mentioned before in this blog -- is the danger of attack women in India face daily. I shudder to think of Mena -- a mother with a newborn -- riding through dark streets at night.