Bangalore lore

Not even a twister is good enough a word to describe our whirlwind tour.

At 7: 30, outside the airport, Gaurav K. Punjabi, NASSCOM’s business development exec and our guide in Bangalore, had been waiting for us. He had reached an hour earlier and was anxious to get us on the bus [again!].

After a smoke-stop, the bus was zig-zagging its way to the main city.

Karnataka’s capital Bangalore:
Population: Over 6 million.
Area: 2190 sq km, near the Southern tip of India.
Traffic: Not insane.
Roads: Under construction, apparently.
First looks: Intel, sleek office, Microsoft, huge building, Diamond District, wow! cluster of office blocks.
Sleek or what?: Actually, no. Bangalore is just another city, with more than its share of dotcom offices spread all over the city.
Connectivity: Massive move to broadband [995 per month] the city/install fiber optics underway.

See: Department of IT and BioTech, Govt of Karnataka
See: Bangalore Net

Stopped at a restaurant. Chai garam eases our nerves. And we’re off to DigitalGlobalsoft; chairman NASSCOM Som Mittal’s company.

DigitalGlobalsoft is about to be gobbled up by Hewlitt Packard and senior business exec Vishnu M. takes us through the company’s exponential growth based on a ‘partner-strategy’. The company’s market turnover stood at a healthy US$542m in December 2003. Owais and Asad showed a keen interest in learning about its HR practices. A tour of the call center area and a short walkabout around the premises reveals Globalsoft is anything beyond our imagination: the company is spread over acres and acres of tastefully done land. Lutfuallah Khan and I end up talking about our first impressions. We are astounded. Lutfullah Sahib wonders how long it will take Pakistan to build a company of this magnitude. We quietly put the estimate down to decades.

Next stop WIPRO.

An argument has broken between Owais, Asad, Sadia and myself. The theme is ‘gender’ relations and perceptions within the delegation. After a week’s worth of pitiful interaction, Asad and Owais were on our case for putting up what I can safely call ‘an attitude’. In between pot shots and sleep-deprived existences, the dynamic duo questions why some ‘folks’ within the delegation are standoffish. The argument continues well within the WIPRO premises and the hush at the entrance lobby finally lulls us.

WIPRO’s premises [one of 9] is another example of unmatched elegance and huge expanse. We’re met by three senior executives from the company’s marketing arm and ushered into their presentation room. After a brief presentation, Nadeem, Asad and Owais once again rallied off questions about the company’s attrition rate, HR policies and their revenue from exports to the US [“its tougher to sell to people of South Asian origin in the US”]. Clearly, how companies make the big leap from a small startup to a global dotcom is the story the Pakistani delegates wish to hear over and over. For WIPRO, a vegetable oil manufacturer, it has been a roaring success.

At WIPRO, journalists from United News of India put Nadeem and Owais on hold for a 20-minute session.

One group snap later, we are ready to be dazzled by InfoSys, a few blocks away. Turns out the drive is all of 40 minutes, the minimum time we traveled to get anywhere in Bangalore.

InfoSys literally knocks the wind out of my lungs. The difference between a block of red apartments where a group of seven software engineers started their empire compared to the vast, chic magnitude of InfoSys today is a sight for sore eyes. This sight draws delegates and visitors from afar, we are number 5 on a list of 14 for Feb 6th. The buzz on this campus is unbelievable [because it feels like one!] – phone booths, traffic signs, golf carts for a quick round, and, last but not the least, a merchandise shop [no time for Pakistanis alas].

Binod H.R., Vice President Commercial, sits downs for a lavish lunch with the PASHA delegates. He talks about InfoSys’ success and has a few questions of his own about the size of Pakistan’s tech industry. He continues to show off a conference hall that is hi-tech enough to put the UN’s New York headquarters to shame [“we have to keep this up if we are going to entertain visitors like Bill Gates”].

Lunch over, we are off to our second last destination: vMoksha in the Diamond District. It was nearly 4 and fatigue had started to hit the best of us. VMoksha’s CEO Pawan Kumar is one of many success stories out of India. His presentation is a typical marketing run down but his interactive session with the delegates gives every one a start: he talks about niches Pakistani start-ups can tap into [diet Coke rules!]. I focus on snaps and hope the delegates remember where Pawan is pointing.

Out of the Diamond District, the delegation is about to split up again. Sadia and Lutfullah Khan have finally solved their booking problems and managed seats for New Delhi. The two are headed for IndiaSoft [and the Taj Mahal]. Asad cannot wait for his Bangalore buddy to show up and take him away from the bus-tour.

Gul M. Iqbal, a former IBM-India exec, spotted us at vMoksha. He insists the members must accompany him for tea. At Gul’s place, Asad is off.

Three down, three to go.

On the way to Skanda Software, Nadeem, Owais and I get to listen to Gul’s Bangalore story. Around us, the construction is continuing at breakneck speed through the night to lay down fibers and dig up roads. The city’s story has yet to see a ‘glorious’ end. Gul talks about firms researching bio-tech and chip manufacturing. Bangalore is R&D.

Skanda Software turns out to be a typical Pakistani software house; comprising all of 7 working staff. Expecting a delegation of 20, director Dawood Khan is surprised to see 4 people get off the bus. Dinner is far from my mind and I darted glances at Owais and Nadeem: “Make this a quick one”. And we do.

Nearing 9pm and we are off to the airport.

Our hosts are dead tired and so are we. Asad, all prepped up from his evening out, joins us near the boarding desk. The flight is short and the subsequent Indica taxi ride even shorter [20 mins to the Oberoi]. As Nadeem, Owais and Asad recover from the speedometer shock, I make a beeline for the lift to get to bed. 1am. Peace at last!