Today, I woke up at 7 AM and showered before having breakfast which Babu made closer to 8:30 AM. I enjoyed an omelet and toast. Indians must eat a lot of toast as I received four pieces yesterday and did not eat it all so Babu gave each of us 3 pieces today and hopefully will continue to adjust the portions as I do not want to waste a loaf of bread daily. After breakfast I left along with Troy, Peiran, & Daniella (who arrived at 6:30 AM), for our first day of work. I walked .3 KM to the end of the street where I caught the 335 E bus which is nice and air conditioned and for 10 rupees took us to the International Tech Park which is only 1 KM from where we hoped on. However, the walking conditions are horrible as there is no sidewalk, just dirt and some random slabs of concrete and massive gaps every 30 feet or so for irrigation. Upon arrival, I showed my badge (Yes I am legit) and entered the tech park which has six massive buildings (Discoverer, Creator, Innovator, Explorer, etc) and walked over to Discoverer where I took the elevator to the 9th floor where Avesthagen is located.
Anil greeted us at the entrance and walked us to their boardroom where I met with Dr. Villoo Patel who founded the company and a few other executives. The design of the office resembles a pediatrician office with lots of pastel painted walls. After completing introductions, I learned the history of Avesthagen and began to realize that the executives have extremely high expectations of our capabilities. Each of the five interns is assigned a project, mine being Legal Agreements and Licenses with companies that utilize drugs that Avesthagen produces. After the lecture, Anil gave us an in-depth tour of all of Avesthagen's offices and labs at the International Tech Park. They occupy 3 units amongst two of the building with their 9 floor offices being the main area. The labs seems pretty intense and there are 450 employees, most of which appear to be scientists that are completing tests for products the company hopes to launch. They are extremely well developed and already sell health food in the United States and have several projects under their belt.
The Tech Park has lots of eateries (including Pizza Hut, Subway, & KFC) and several convenient services. There is a massive mall being built at the park but it will not be complete until August. I have yet to go shopping but there is a market 2 KM away which I hope to see this week. After the tour and meeting with many of the scientists, I enjoyed a cappuccino as we sat and talked with Anil before going to lunch. I ate at an Indian restaurant which has a small veg buffet for 60 rupees or $1.50 but I will definitely order off the menu in the future.
Upon returning after lunch we briefly met with Pierre who is the Senior VP and deals with operations and strategic growth. He is married to Dr. Patel's daughter and seems rather nice. He had just returned from the US and told us to return at 4 PM to receive further instructions. I looked into buying an international phone but you need a proof of residence for a local in Bangalore so it may be a tad complicated. However, you do get two hours of talk time for 46 rupees or slightly over $1. When I returned at 4 PM, I received a desk with a gorgeous view as the company is on the 9th floor. Their IT department set each of us up with a computer at our desks and I do have Microsoft Office 2007 but the computer is still running Window 2000 which I need to fix, some of the computers have XP so I hope to at least upgrade to that as the aesthetics are disgusting for 2000.
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| Discoverer Building where I am working |
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| Creator & Innovator, two of the other Tech Park Buildings |
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| Vivanta by Taj Hotel which my desk overlooks |
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| View from my desk. |
Pierre met with Troy and Pieran, each for about 45 minutes. Overall he seems to have extremely high expectations of us and has given us access to countless documents and thousands upon thousands pages of reading. I shall wait to receive further instruction so I can decipher which documents are crucial for my legal project. I finally left after 7 PM and will go in tomorrow around 9:30 AM where I will meet with the executives and their lawyer and Pierre to go over my project details. I am excited to get legal experience with contacts and licensing agreements, however, I believe the company thinks I am able to complete them without any instruction even though I am not familiar with the protocol, let along any laws in India, along with the countries Avesthagen partners with.
Babu made us dinner and the four of us enjoyed our first family meal together. I am unaware of the meat as it appeared to be a smaller chicken, however, it did taste good.
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| First Family Dinner |
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