The Daily Grind

I’ve received quite a few questions from people about what my daily routine is like. So here is my attempt to walk you through my typical day. I’m a guy who likes to have a routine, and although it took me a little bit to establish one here, I now have one that I’m pretty comfortable with.

I wake up every day at 6:57 AM to the sound of Travis Tritt singing “It’s A Great Day to Be Alive”. That’s one of my favorite songs of all time, and no matter how crazy things get, that song always puts things into perspective for me. I never get tired of hearing it. The joys of technology (via my iPad) has made it possible for that to be my alarm! I once had a colleague that told me the first time I met with him that, “Every morning when you wake up, you can choose whether you have a good day, or a bad day. It’s your decision. It’s all about your attitude when you wake up,  how you attack the day, and what you make of it.” I’ve never forgotten those words, and I’ve found that Travis Tritt is the catalyst to me having a good day!

Then I turn on the Indian ESPN, which sometimes you can catch a basketball game on, since the time difference is 11.5 hours. Usually it’s some sort of X-games, cheerleading championships, or cross-fit competitions. Why they choose to play these things on Indian ESPN in the morning I will never know. Anyway, by the time I shower, iron my clothes, and get dressed it’s usually around 7:30.

I head down to breakfast, where the restaurant at my apartment has a lovely spread. My typical plate includes watermelon and pineapple, the potato of the day (they make potatoes different every day of the week, my favorite are the classic wedges with bell peppers and the tri-taters that I grew to love from school lunches growing up), some sort of rice or noodles, banana walnut bread or chocolate croissant, and eggs made to order. I usually go with scrambled eggs, depending on who the egg chef is. If it’s the right guy, his scrambled eggs would be the only ones I’ve had who could rival Randall Olander’s special recipe eggs. They are delicious. As soon as I walk through the doors they know what my coffee order is and usually have it waiting for me at my usual table by the time I sit down with my plate. I also catch up on my American News and scores on my iPad during breakfast.

After breakfast I head back up to my room where I have a standing Skype appointment at 8:00 every morning. Apparently I was behind the times before I came here, because I had never used Skype before. It’s amazing. It makes a world of difference when you can actually see the person you’re talking to. Plus I also get to see Dixie. Her full name is Dixie Lou Hu Sanchez, Jr. I’m not really sure how the full name came about, but it stuck! Talk about an adorable little dog!  Anyways, Skype has been a life saver while trying to maintain healthy relationships from India.

Dixie Lou Hu Sanchez, Jr



At 8:30 I head downstairs where my driver, Shyam, is waiting for me. Here’s a little explanation on my timing. The India work day is very different from the American work day. I would much rather get into work at 6:30 or 7:00 and leave at 4:00. It doesn’t work that way here. Leaving at 8:30 means I still beat the morning rush, and can get to work by 9:00. When I get to work at 9:00, I’m one of the first 5% of people in the office. The lights usually aren’t even on yet. The typical Indian work day starts around 9:30 or 10:00, often times later. But of course they also work until 6 or 7:00, sometimes later. I hate those hours. I need to have an evening to unwind a little bit, and need to get decent sleep in order to function.

My job responsibilities here are very much like what my job has been like in the US. It’s a nice mix between on-site work (like what I was doing when I lived in Hawaii and New Jersey) and Project Management, which is what I’ve been doing the last few years. Target has two separate campuses in Bangalore, which are about an hour apart. Both are in business parks that house other international companies such as IBM, Yahoo, Cognizant, etc. The main office building that I am in has 8 floors. Connected to that is another office building of 8 floors, of which Target has the rights to 3 of. We already occupy one floor, and are building out the other two floors. Managing that has been the biggest part of my job thus far. We also will be doing a remodel at our other older building that is on the other side of town. That will start soon.  I’ve also been flying to Delhi (which is in north India) for a different project that I originally had nothing to do with. But it’s not going exactly as planned so I’ve been assisting with that as well.

My lovely workspace.



Personal space isn’t something that is valued, or even really exists in India. Therefore in office buildings, people are pretty packed in by US standards. I share a cube about the size of what I had in MN with another guy, Kiran. Apparently he’s a popular guy, as he always has visitors that often come and make the space even more…um (trying to resist saying loud and smelly. oops just did) ….cramped. I’m pretty used to the office setting here though. It’s a very nice space, not unlike office buildings you’d see in the US. Other than the large statue of the god Ganesha that occupies the entry to the break room. That probably wouldn’t fly in the US. Actually, there would be a better chance of a statue of Ganesha being allowed before a statue of Jesus or Mary would (trying…..to resist….….political………tangent).

Thank Ganesha we have someone guarding the coffee. (pun intended) 



I’ll get into the specifics of my job in another post. The specifics  will take longer to tell than what I’ll have room for here. There will be a lot of fun “technology” pictures and anecdotes in that one, so get excited.

Meal times also vary. Target provides its employees with a free vegetarian lunch every day in the cafeteria. Hopefully I’ll find time to do a post in the future just on the lunches. If anything will make you feel sorry for me about this whole experience, the visuals on that post will be it.  If I eat with my team here, it’s usually about 1:30 before we eat lunch…which is in stark contrast to my usual 11:30 lunch time. If I decide I can’t take the cafeteria food any certain day, the business park has a food court that has a Dominos and KFC. I’ve eaten Dominos and KFC more times in the last three months than I have the entire rest of my life combined.

Since the time difference is nearly exactly 12 hours from the US, conference calls with partners back home usually take place in the evening in Bangalore, which is the morning in the US. So the calls usually start at 6:30 or 7 local time. So three days a week I’m faced with the decision of trying to make it home before the calls start or stick it out at the office until after the conference calls are done. It depends on what I have going on that day, but since it takes me at least an hour to get home after the calls due to traffic, I don’t get home until 8:30 or 9 if I take them from the office. So I usually try to make it home before they start.

So most of the time my work days wind down about 7:30 or 8:00, which make for long days and long weeks. But it’s all part of the Bangalore daily grind. After work I usually head up to the apartment gym to run a few miles and lift some weights in preparation for the Tough Mudder. The Tough Mudder is a 12 mile race that has a different obstacle every half mile or so. Kind of like a Warrior Dash x 4. I signed up for the race with some friends from work before I knew I was coming. The chances of me being home in time to actually participate in the race are slim, but it still provides me motivation to get my butt off the couch to workout, just in case. The combination of that and the food here has me at my lowest weight since high school! So I guess that’s a plus.

I don’t cook here. I actually enjoy cooking and do it quite often back in Minneapolis, but it takes too much time and energy here. If I’m not racing back from work to get on a conference call, it’s late and I don’t feel like starting the 2 hour process of going to the grocery store. It’s not like you can just run to Target and get everything you need in 10 minutes and get out. It takes forever, and the selection at any one store is crap.  Hell, I’d take Little River’s  5 aisle grocery store any day over what I shop at here. You could probably find 80% of what you needed to have an averaged well stocked American kitchen, but you’d have to go to 10 different stores in 10 different parts of the city to get it all. I don’t have the time and the energy for that. I’ve been to the grocery store 4 times in 3 months here. I pile my basket full of all the American foods I can find at the store. Staples include Nature Valley granola bars, Pringles (which I don’t think I had eaten since maybe high school), mini Snickers, and Coke. You have to go to a special store to get meat that you can trust, and a loaf of bread won’t last a week before getting moldy, as there aren’t any preservatives in it. I tried to do the peanut butter and jelly thing for awhile, but my bread kept molding and I’d have to throw half a loaf away. I don't drink the milk because it comes in a box and sits on a non-refrigerated shelf. I don't trust that for some reason.  Sure, I could buy the local ingredients to make the local food. But why would I spend the time and money to learn how to cook a cuisine I don’t really even enjoy that much in the first place?

 What adds to my reluctance to cook is the room service. There is a full menu to order from in my room from the restaurant downstairs and with one quick touch of a button on my room phone and a 10 second conversation, I can have a delicious plate of chicken Pad Thai in my room in usually under 15 minutes. All for 250 rupees (about $5). To me, it’s well worth it to not have to go to the store, worry about the ingredients you’re purchasing, and taking the time to actually cook it.  As Branden Comfort is aware of from his visit, you can also have beer and alcohol delivered directly to your room at any time of the night. Also a plus.



Enjoying room service Kingfisher at 2 AM over a game of caps.



After I secure my room service or granola bar, Pringles, and Snickers minis dinner, I plop down on the couch to watch an hour or two of TV. The great thing about India is that they are typically about a decade behind on popularity of American pop culture. There are 5 channels that play American movies on my cable. 80% of those movies are from the 80’s and 90’s. It’s great! I’m getting caught up on all the movies I missed out on during that period that I wouldn’t look twice at while channel surfing back home. I think I’ve seen every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie ever made now. They love him. Sylvester Stallone too. There was also a very interesting Nicholas Cage movie marathon on last weekend. They also love their kung fu movies, Tom Cruise, and Julia Roberts.  

About that time work in Minneapolis starts ramping up, so I answer a few emails here and there until about 10:00 when I head to bed. The next thing I know, I’m waking up to “I got my rice cooking in the microwave. Got a three day beard I don’t plan to shave. And it’s a goofy thing but I just gotta say, I’m doing alright.”

Indeed. I am doing alright.