Tour of the Deloitte Office

The Deloitte office in Hyderabad is located in HITEC city, one of the seven wonders of Hyderabad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HITEC_City). Our office, which consists of four separate buildings or "blocks," is located on Deloitte Road No. 2. There are several other US companies with offices next to Deloitte's (e.g., Google, Gateway, and Motorola).

During our tour of the office, we visited Block A, the main building that we happen to share with Google. In Block B, we visited the Communications Gym, an amazing learning facility where Deloitte professionals can come to improve their English reading, writing, and speaking skills, as well as their presentation skills. We also visited one of the call centers. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the call center in action as our tour occurred around 1 am PST (so there were only one or two professionals handling the call center at the time).

Along the way we made sure to check out the gym and some of the training rooms. All rooms have a themed name, with a consistent theme for each building. Block B's theme is American movie titles. They did a good job of pairing the movie names up with the various rooms. A training room is called "Back to School," a coaching room is referred to as "Batman Begins," and the gym is called "The Lord of the Rings."

Our final stop was the cafeteria, which is located on the ground floor of my building (Block D). The cafeteria is always packed during lunchtime, as most people eat on-site every day. The food is of decent quality and amazingly cheap. The combo meal, which is the most expensive item on the menu as it includes a cup of soup, pasta, a side of veggies, and a piece of garlic bread, costs only 45 rupees (~$1)!

First Impressions of Hyderabad

My voyage began on February 14, 2007. My mom and I spent Valentine's Day on a Lufthansa airplane. Even though we flew business class, the airline did not provide any chocolates or flowers - very disappointing =P!

We arrived in Hyderabad around midnight on February 16. The next day, after sleeping in and having masala dosas for breakfast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosa), my mom and I set out to run some errands. Due to the horrible driving conditions in India, I have a personal driver (Mubeen) to take me everywhere I go. In case you aren't familiar with traffic in India, check out this great video on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fg9f93gpfbo (the last 30-45 seconds are the funniest).

Once I got used to the traffic situation, I was able to take my eyes off of the road and focus on my surroundings. I was both amazed at how modern the city looked and dismayed at the obvious signs of poverty all over. Many families live in hovels along the road. At every traffic light we stop at, beggars tap on our car windows to ask for money. It is very sad and disheartening to see so many people living such a life, especially as I am chauffeured around the city like royalty (well, I wouldn't go that far but you know what I mean!). Here are some pictures of the city and of the hovels I see every day when driving to/from work.