My Indian Birthday!

It's my birthday today! And I'm still in Bangalore! Since I cannot get back, I have to spend my birthday in India. Good thing is that I have been here for a few weeks, so I'm not too lonely here.

The tradition here is exactly opposite from what's in US. In US, usually the birthday person will be taken out by his/her friends or coworkers for dinner or lunch. But here, everyone is asking me to give them a treat. So I have to take my co-workers here out for lunch! :( I miss US.

My right hand has been shaken by at least twenty to thirty people today. Since whoever knows it's your birthday today, he/she will come to shake your hand and say "many happy returns of the day" then ask for some treat. So I have shaken hands with all my indian co-workers here, the security manager, the HR person, the door boy, the Art Emporium sales guy etc. Good thing is that they are not French, otherwise, I'll have to be kissed on both sides of my cheeks for many many times.

But I do get a Birthday cake here even though there is no candle. My co-workers here cannot get a candle for me because I kept my age as a secret from them. They tried very hard to guess my age, even asking me some tricky questions about it. But I'm just not telling! :P

I even got a gift from the dev team here, a sandwood Geneish, which I always want to get one! I like it a lot!

At night, I went dinner with our VP Engineer and QA Manager who both are visiting Bangalore here. The VP Engineer is my boss's boss's boss -- so it's like my great-grand-boss. I took them to Ebony, a very nice Indian restaurant on top of Ivory Hotel. Those two people are hilarious, talking jokes all the time. We had a very good dinner. After that they left for US and I'm all alone again!