Aruna Viswanatha - Livemint.com
ABOUT RECENT POSTS
Member since 02-14-2008
Last visited 03-26-2009
Timezone -8.00 GMT
Total Posts 18
Post Rank 1
  • Monday, March 09, 2009
    Posted at 11:04:00 AM
    Normal 0 Last week I got a call from a marketing guy who wanted to follow up on an email he sent. I was on my way to a meeting, so I said: "I'm out right now, can I call you when I'm back in office?" It was only after I hung up that I realized what had just happened; I'd officially gone native. For months and months I resisted using all sorts of "Hindified" English phrases. I would insist on "It's cold," instead of "I'm feeling so cold," or "I'll e-mail you," instead of "I.
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  • Tuesday, March 03, 2009
    Posted at 3:02:00 PM
    I had been in India some five months before visiting my family members that live in Bangalore, and by then, had grown pretty used to life in Delhi. Getting around was largely by auto, and the haggling routine was usually some variation on the following: we would start 30 rupees apart on a price, I would invoke the meter, he would allude to the perpetual traffic jam (and sometimes, if said autowallah was a particularly colorful character, he would also give me a story about a sick brother), and finally we would settle on a fee. Conversation, when.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
    Posted at 7:14:00 PM
    Normal 0 With Valentines Day one month away, we present an episode of the expat show on dating in Delhi. Since dating in India is a limited concept, and couples often tie the knot after knowing each other for only a few months, how do you manage to date the western way, without screwing it up or looking too out-of-place in India? Melissa, for example, did it by telling people she was married. Listen to her story of how that backfired a little, when she was outside the country. We also talk another couple, Rishi and Anuja Jaitley , who made it work.
  • Wednesday, December 31, 2008
    Posted at 2:35:00 PM
    Normal 0 In the spirit of the holiday season and year-end top ten lists, I thought I should do one of my own. I came to India last December, so the timing seemed right to reflect on reaching the one-year mark, with my top 10 best and worst moments of being an expat in Delhi. While creating this list, I realized that most of the bad times are the ones that made me painfully aware of just how much of a foreigner I am; the good ones made me forget that. Here they are, in no particular order: Top 5 best: 1. Discovering that there are 100 different types.
  • Monday, October 20, 2008
    Posted at 7:17:00 PM
    After a Mint story last week reporting that employers would now have to contribute to the provident fund on behalf of foreign employees, I wondered how this might affect all the international restaurants that have opened up in Delhi in recent months, touting (expensive) expat chefs as a big draw. Hotels have often brought in chefs from abroad with the idea of keeping them around for a year or two before sending them back; not only because expat stays are usually temporary, but also because they command much higher salaries + perks than their local.
  • Monday, October 06, 2008
    Posted at 3:59:00 PM
    My sister is getting married next summer, but since she lives in the U.S. and I'm the only family member in India, I'm the one doing most of the shopping. I've spent months going to sari shops in Delhi and invitation printers in Bangalore. I've scoured Hyderabad for matching bangles, and visited and revisited tailors to stitch blouses. So last week, when I went to a showroom in Delhi's Khan Market, it was with the idea that it would be the last major purchase I would need to make. I bought one beautiful gold silk and lace dress.
  • Wednesday, July 30, 2008
    Posted at 4:16:00 PM
    Life as an expat in Delhi has its charm, but I realized pretty early on why 30 year-olds still live with their parents here. I cried on the phone once with Airtel, after they shut off my mobile for the fourth time. When I tried to open my first Indian bank account, they asked me for another bank statement to prove where I lived. I called a plumber to come fix my sink, then called him four more times because, I wasn't really sure if he was coming or not. So when HSBC Bank International released a study today on "the world's best places.
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  • Tuesday, July 22, 2008
    Posted at 10:39:00 AM
    Can U.S. companies learn something from their Indian technology vendors? According to a report released today by Duke University's Vivek Wadhwa and the Kauffman Foundation , the answer is a 24-case-study-backed yes. In a somewhat expected, and somewhat ironic, twist, Wadhwa finds that, since Indian companies have had to invest so much in training, developing, and managing their employees, they've gotten pretty good at it. Last year, Wadhwa and Duke's Global Engineering and Entrepreneurship project reported that India would loose its.
  • Monday, July 14, 2008
    Posted at 12:01:00 PM
    The Associated Press reported today on the status of a push by United States business groups to boost the number of students that go into science, math and engineering fields. If India has the problem of not enough quality seats for the students that want to go into them, the U.S. faces the inverse scenario of great institutes and not enough students that want to study at them. A handful of business and tech associations came together in 2005 to fix the problem with government assistance, and attract more students that their industry can employ.
  • Thursday, July 03, 2008
    Posted at 5:36:00 PM
    Lectures are out; conversations are in. That's the attitude training firm Par Excellence is trying to capitalize on with its new round of conferences, or conclaves, called HR Cafe. Rather than a series of speeches, presentations, and powerpoint slides, the sessions are meant to get human resources professionals in India talking to each other about the problems they are dealing with and come up with possible solutions. It's a strategy Par Excellence's director Rajeshwar Upadhyaya thought specifically useful for the Indian context. "What.
  • Monday, June 30, 2008
    Posted at 1:01:00 PM
    Companies are investing crores of rupees in training programs for their employees—soft skills, hard skills, management skills—all taught either by a formal instructor, or by a software substitute. But how much of it is really useful? According to Narrendiran P, a public relations manager at the training firm Expertus , not that much. Formal training and workshops account for only 10 or 20% of what people learn at work, he says, and the rest is through things like observing, talking to their colleagues, and trial-and-error. “Most corporations over.
  • Thursday, May 29, 2008
    Posted at 2:30:00 PM
    Calling all showbiz hounds: Think you can be part of the next Salim-Javed duo? The Network 18 group's buzz18.com is giving you a shot. The website just launched a contest searching for Bollywood's next top writer. Building on past contests and pushing its way deeper into India, Buzz 18 is trying to get out of the top cities and find talent hidden in India's villages. "This new initiative is aimed at breaking the metro centric talent myth & will present an ideal platform to budding script writers from across the country,".
  • Thursday, May 22, 2008
    Posted at 10:54:00 AM
    On today's Careers Page, check out tips on surviving your first day of work , and dealing with difficult co-workers. In India's new corporate offices, workers are still dealing with the same old problems. Cliques, gossip, backstabbing...sounds a bit like high school all over again? An Infogain employee describes an instance when a colleague tried to take credit for his own work. Women mention times when their male co-workers wouldn't take them seriously. Experts say, it's all a matter of communication. What do you think? Any horror.
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