This is, of course, a work trip. And I avoid talking too much about work (as I’ve said – what idiot would want to hear THOSE stories)? But there’s one I just have to share… So Sunday (after my 3am flight arrival), I went into the office around noon and worked well through the evening. While hammering away at emails, I heard men yelling and carrying on. Due to the holiday celebrations, it was complete chaos outside in the streets. Fireworks – big booming fireworks, people running and yelling… I tried to ignore what seemed to be a mounting coup just outside my door. And then one of the staff came to get me – and told me to bring my camera. Heaven forbid, what COULD this be?

So – to back up a bit… my “Martha Stewart + Toolbelt 2008 World Tour” has been extended: I packed up my power drill and caulk gun and moved them from China to India! We’ve been working on a major lab expansion for several months now and my visit here coincides with the completion of our new lab construction. It’s like building any house – two weeks before final walk-through the place is a disaster… nails and wood chunks everywhere, cabling bundles hanging from the ceilings, exposed wires and “discarded” saw blades and such.

Still interested in the screaming gaggle of ganders? Well… software company labs are filled with hardware and electricity. And it takes big equipment to make those things cooperate – from the electrical panels that control the balance of the power load to huge wall-sized AC units that keep the heat output from frying the sensitive electronics in the equipment. The coup forming outside my office… was the sound of human effort required to move that heavy equipment into place. Up three flights of stairs! Yep – you heard it… The screaming represented a group effort of about 20 wiry men (half my size!) all hoisting those ton-sized units up three flights of stairs and then through the floor of an office building to our newly constructed lab site. Another shocker – most all of them were barefoot. (Although I had a recent tetanus shot, all the spent/bent nails on that lab floor made my toenails curl!) My local colleague who told me to bring my camera assured me that those guys had “natural shoe leather”… but the sight of 20 men lifting and moving over a ton of equipment by jute ropes and sheer willpower was something I will not soon forget.