I completed a month working now, and it has been a good experience so far. Working in a country where native language is not the language you know is interesting, for techies (and everyone else I guess) have a tendency to break into passionate discussions in their mother tongue once in a while, and I have to watch and read the emotions sans language to understand what is being said. But my Chinese lessons are progressing and I hope to be able to understand more in due course of time. At office, it is interesting to observer that issues in building a group in China are very similar to doing the same in India (something I was part of); this shows clearly that culture is a much bigger part of the problem (and solution) in any such endeavor, rather than process and people. More on this topic later.
In last couple of weeks, we have felt much more settled in Shanghai. We are moving to our new house over the weekend. I still have to figure out the best way of commuting but I realize I have to give 1 hour to my commute, a far cry from my regular 10-15 minutes for last 12 years of my work. Well, there is always the first time! The house should be a pleasure to live, it is more tall than broad, so there are lots of stairs, with each floor having its own bathroom! Maybe an overkill for a family of 3, but then we need to plan for future! J We went to the new house to do some basic Puja at the place (we are scheduled to move there on Nov 1), and met another Indian family there (the only other Indian family in that complex!) who are very friendly. This will definitely ease our initial settling down process at the new house.
My wife is getting more comfortable getting out on her own; the incident in my daughter’s school triggered her outings and now she doesn’t mind going far-off places on taxi. The ease with which I could get the cell number and bank account excited her and she too went ahead and got these too, with not much hassles. With a cellphone in hand, I guess she can go all over China if she needs too!
So in a nutshell, progress in Shanghai for us is better than what we expected it to; hopefully this trend will continue and we can proudly call ourselves shanghainese in 6 months!
