Arrival in India

After nearly 2.5 days of traveling, I arrived in Chennai around 4am this morning. Nirav, PlanetRead and BookBox's CFO, had sent a taxi to pick me up. It was totally dark at the airport, and the heat blasted me as soon as I left the building with my lugage. The taxi driver spoke broken english and drove me south for 3 hours towards the flat in Pondicherry, which I share with Scott. We arrived at 7:42am. Scott was awoken by the knock at the door and greeted me bleary-eyed. The flat is very simple and practical, though would be considered luxurious to many in India.

There are two separate bedrooms with their own bathrooms, a balcony that looks out on the street, a living room area and a small kitchen.

While I was unpacking and setting up my room, the sun continued to climb higher, heating up the street quickly. Scott called the office to tell them I had arrived.

The Living Room/Kitchen/Foyer

My room

We would need transportation to the office since neither of us knew the way by heart. Francis, one of the employees at PlanetRead, came to pick us up on a small scooter. Because the scooter could only seat two, I was driven first to the office; it was great. I hopped right on the back and we zipped of into the streets of Pondicherry, which had become busy with other scooters, bicyclists, trucks, ox-driven carts etc. After we had arrived and I was dropped off, Francis returned to the flat to get Scott.

The PlanetRead office here in Pondicherry is in the French quarter of the city:


The building is encased in a tall white gate and holds the office (shown below) where the entire staff busily computes each day. The typical work day starts late and runs late. It seems that the PlanetRead staff is a casual but very hard-working, talented group of people. There is also a guest flat (where my friend Nikhil, fellow newbie to the PlanetRead family, lives). Nirav's office upstairs is upstairs and has a wonderful view out onto the Bay of Bengal.

I was pretty tired by the end of the day, but had the opportunity to enjoy some wonderful South Indian food. Yum!