Recovering From Travel

I feel in a daze after arriving from China. Last night, I attended the Toastmaster meeting and I did not contribute too much. I felt tired but I wanted to attend the last meeting for the year. This morning we began the knowledge transfer for the boss man's data warehouse project. It was a struggle to start because it was a long while ago when I started this project. So I had to look for my old materials and remember what had transpired about 2 years ago. I realized that I had done a lot of work despite my failure to successfully complete the project.

In the afternoon, we had a phone meeting with the contributors from India. We settled a few issues on the scope of work needed to be done. We are in the midst of transition while the project is ongoing. I hope that the road is now clear. I was also answering a lot of emails from the technical head in China. The performance issue keeps on going round and round. But I realized that he does not know how to proceed. Hopefully, we got the message across. I still have to log my time sheet and work on the dashboard report for the meeting next week. A day in a life of a project manager.

I realized that tomorrow's knowledge worker should be someone with a wide ranging mind. Talking to different people in different areas in the globe, about different subjects or projects, learning new processes and things to do. I am reaching my breaking point and it's only the will to continue. Tomorrow's worker should not be bewildered by having a wide range of experience or have a wide range of interest by reading books. Maybe this will help them overcome the bewildering onslaught information. I guess I am feeling this way because I am tired from my trip. I will have a better mind when I get some rest during the weekend.

I have 1 disc left to listen to before completing the 15 disc audio book 'Shalimar the Clown.' Salman Rushdie strikes me as a more modern Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He wrotes more about the relevant issues of the day. But his novels lacks the mark of a classic and timeless work which Marquez or V.S. Naipaul reeks in. There is no doubt that his work is way above average, close to a work of true genius but there is a feeling of triviality or pop culture. His greatness lies in the broadness of his vision, inventiveness and craft. But somehow it lacks the power of Kawabata or Marquez or Naipaul or even Coetzee.

Back to work

I went to the office today and tried to do some work. Last night I was able to get some sleep but awoke early to fix my things. My wife said that I snored loudly, the loudest so far that she has heard from me. I had moments of wakefulness when I had minor difficulty breathing but all in all I awoke fresh from sleep. It was a good plane trip and I had a good spot near the doorway between compartments which had a wider leg room. The movies shown on the plane where Chinese movies: the first one was a good dramatic thriller which I liked and showed a gritty realism of life in China. The second one in the trip to Singapore was terrible. It seemed like a Chinese version of 'Sex and the City.'

I have good memories of my trip in China despite my problems with the cold. I always like this city in winter but never liked the chill which is really a poor preparation on my part. If I brought my long johns and thermal underwear, I would be fine. Most people actually do not like this city but I like it's sometimes bleak and depressing scenes. It has a kind of sad melancholy and I guess most people prefer to stay home in the cold so it's streets seem to be desolate. So it's a welcome change when one stumbles into streets filled with lights and restaurants and people eating in the well-lighted rooms. The fact that it's difficult to communicate in English with the cab drivers and waiters actually add to it's charm.

I realized that I had suffered moments of paranoia and self-delusion due to my sleepless nights. The cold was able to shield my uneasiness. But the novelty of the experience was stimulating especially with the book 'Shalimar the Clown' which I am reading. I have about 2 more CDs to go before I finish the book. It's amazing to read with interesting passages about the Abu Sayaff and terrorism in the Philippines. It reads like an earlier book I read called 'Imperial Grunts' which talks about the American military presence in Mindanao and encounters in Basilan island and Jolo. It's like Salman Rushdie has connections to American intelligence to get this type of information on terrorist organizations.

I am going to a Toastmaster's meeting tonight. My days are numbered in this local organization. I may have about six months left before moving. At last I just got a mail from the person in charge of re-location. It seems she is in charge of helping me and my family move. I have set a meeting and hope she can call me and my wife at home so we can discuss our concerns. As I have thought, things are moving in a slow and methodical way. Despite my nervous doubts, there has always been an air of inevitability towards the transfer. Once the decision is in place, all the cogs will begin to switch into gear and move the machinery towards it's goal.

The trip in China went well. I am glad we had pushed through with it. My friend, I think enjoyed himself. It was a strange and exotic place perhaps for him and he did really well in the training. Now is the time to follow through with the remaining action tasks to do. I am glad he came as he provided the meat. His summary on the last day was a good wrap-up. I called the project leader in Thailand who was not able to attend due to last week's demonstrations in Bangkok airports. We went through the summary and agreed with most of it's main points. I have a load of things to do especially in the use of the new tools. A week from now I will be on a 2 week vacation so I need to hustle.

Leaving the Cold

Just arrived in the airport close to midnight and using the free Internet access terminals to blog. I started the day swimming, having a sauna and packing my things. I thought that I should walk to the nearby park but I did not like to go out into the cold morning. I was not able to sleep again last night because of the dry air in my room. The humidifier did not do any good. I felt that the room was haunted. I felt that maybe the ghost died in my side of the bed. So I switched sides. But it did not do me any good.

I said the same thing to my friend in our last dinner together. I said the reason I may not be sleeping well is not because of the dry air but a ghost. Maybe one of those who have died in the war. One of poor souls shown in the museum we had gone to on the weekend. He laughed though he said that he had the same problem last week in the first few days he arrived. He solved his problem by opening the window and letting the air in instead of using the air conditioner. Maybe I should have tried his suggestion. So in my last morning, I opened my window in the room while I was packing and felt the cold morning air rush in.

We had dinner in the Korean restaurant near the hotel. I found out that there was a Korea town in the city and wished that we had a chance to visit. But the cold sometimes changes our plans. I felt that I was half functioning in the cold. Like my capacities where working at only 50% capacity. When I was talking to my wife after I got back from dinner, I told her I was going home the next day. She was surprised. Apparently I forgot to tell her that I changed my schedule the week before. Hence, here is evidence that the cold is affects me.

But it was not only the cold but also the sleepless nights. When I keep waking the moment when I get to the point of achieving sleep. Then my difficulty in breathing would come and I would awake again. I felt like a fool opening the TV and watching the shows, closing it and trying to sleep, walking to the bathroom to take a pee and switching position to try to sleep. But the cycle would repeat many times until suddenly it was the morning and time to get up. But I got a chance to see a lot of good movies in the early morning shows.

During these wakeful moments, my thoughts would often shift to my coming new life overseas. I keep dreaming of my new assignment and the work I would be doing and the new people I would meet. I wonder when I could get the clear details. But I should not worry because the message is clear. I just keep thinking that the economic mess would affect everything. I still have a ton of things to do and I tried to so some work today. I tried calling my contributor in India from the airport but could not reach him. So I decided to forget it and continue work in the office the next day.

Going Back Home

We finished the training today. The evaluation from the participants were good. It was a good 9 days here with a lot of information shared to the users. I personally feel that they have learned a lot during these past days. I did not contribute much, sticking to the PowerPoint presentations. I allowed my friend from head office to dominate the stage because he is the true expert. In fact I suspect that he may be a genius if his attentions is more focused. Nevertheless, I think the users where in awe of his knowledge and ability. I contributed more by showing him around and arranging the whole training agenda.

I will be going home finally tomorrow afternoon. My flight is at 2pm but I feel tired and have no idea where to spend my spare morning. Usually, I will have something planned already, going to a temple or a park. But I feel tired. My nose and throat is raw and dry and I did not sleep well in the past days. I keep walking up due to my dry throat and have difficulty breathing. So I did not have a good sleep. My voice is also very strange and I could not speak too much although I try to handle both the starting and ending presentations. I also try to send out the materials to everybody. My friend is the star of the show during the training and I am willing to recede from the limelight.

I think I should be humble towards my abilities on this subject and not pretend that I am an expert. In fact, I am more the project manager and not the subject matter expert. I have loads of things to do as well, particularly testing, coordinating with my contributors, answering important emails and planning for the transition. The outsource company wants to conduct the training in Bangalore with my current contributor but they do not like any competitor in their premises. So we are stuck but I threw the problem back to him, letting him find the venue for the training in Bangalore. Not a good feeling, doing all these things, with a stuffy nose, dry throat, fatigue and enduring the cold.

Listening to the book 'Shalimar The Clown' and living in the northeastern Chinese city in the winter is far from my ordinary reality. At least my colleague from Europe has similar experiences on winter. So I am in an entirely new world enjoying an internal life driven exotic by Rushdie's book and living the cold winter scape in this strange city that often seems moored in the past in certain places. I was surprised when I found that some American soldiers who surrendered in the the fall of Bataan where shipped here to work in factories. I believe there were about a thousand men who where shipped from the prison camps in hot and humid lands of South East Asia to the freezing winters of North China.

There are also similarities. Rushdie's book is centered on Kashmir also a cold place. The novel is about the struggle between India and Pakistan which echoed the actual reality last week when terrorist attacked Mumbai. It was found out that the leader was a known terrorist from Kashmir. So I understood the passages about the snow and cold in Kashmir, experiencing it myself here. Now I have also to talk to my colleagues in outsource who are also young Indians, successfully riding a wave of outsourcing, led by their famous writers like Salman Rushdie. There are similarities all over the place.

Shalimar The Clown

I brought along an audio book with me, Salman Rushdie's 'Shalimar the Clown.' I thought that I would not like his book but it's a great work. The story has a wide scope with the feeling of being a classic epic. It is a fun story to listen to. I wonder why I did not discover Salman Rushdie before. Listening to his work, I feel that he's like a vanguard, spreading the voice of India throughout the world. So I now understand why India is sweeping the world with outsourcing and BPO's and software development. If people of the world would like to hear the voice of India, they can just read the talkatively stories of Salman Rushdie.

He is a modern voice which speaks of an understanding of the modern world in all it's complexities. It is an open voice. I wonder if there is a similar voice in China. The recent Nobel prize winner from China also has a great voice. But it is more a philosophical voice, talking of a more abstract reality. China is a much more complex world and the order and progress it has achieved is something that India still struggles in. So I guess it is great to listen to the modern India while in China; trying to reconcile the coming greatness of these 2 giants. I can hear the rising of India in Rushdie's works while I can see the rising of China by waking and seeing it's great modern cities.

Last weekend, we went to the old imperial palace, the 'electronics' street, the old tombs in the park with the lake frozen over and people skating and some even swimming insanely in the freezing cold. Yesterday afternoon, we went to an excellent museum talking about the war with Japan. A great museum that really inspires you and leaves you with an admiration of the communist armies fighting for independence. It was bitter cold in the weekend and I felt sick on some days. Last week there where days that were -22 degrees below zero. It was also cold and dry in my room that I could not sleep well. But the thrill of walking in the snow against the cold biting wind was something hard to miss.

Looking at the old palaces and tombs of the Qing dynasty is something one cannot get in other provinces in China. It fits with the old buildings of Manchuria and the Japanese and Russian occupation. It tells of a different China with cold and snow and nomadic warriors, quite different from the Southern China of languid summers and elegant food. In Liaoning it s more of a rougher and harsher nature with boiled lamb, spicy chilied food and hot pot to keep you from the cold. It is a China that is far from the glamour of Beijing and Shanghai and Guandong. More of the smog, harsh winters and snow and tough rough people. It is a place where Japan lost it's soul and reverted back to a past barbarism, seduced by the land and it's riches.

Hot Pot in China

We had lunch with the project team outside the factory in a nearby restaurant. We took 2 taxis to get to the place which had private rooms with circular windows in the 2nd floor. We paid for lunch which was hot pot but with a difference. We each had a small boiling pot in front of us unlike in most restaurants of this type which had only one central hot pot where everybody would cook food. We cooked meats, noodles, mushrooms, vegetables, shrimp and tofu in a boiling mixture of water and chili peppers. We also had soy sauce and chili to dip the cooked food. It was spicy but refreshing for the cold weather.

I felt a bit sick last night after our dinner. We went back to the food center where I finally had the dumplings. But the climate was bitter cold. There was a very hard cold wind biting into our skin. My colleague from Europe agreed that the bitter, harsh and cold wind in this Chinese city was the harshest he has experienced. Usually the winters in Europe did not have a biting cold wind. So we returned to the hotel after walking for about 15-20 minutes in the merciless weather. Winter in this city may probably be one of most difficult anywhere. Luckily I recovered through the night and only have a slight weakness and cough the next day

The local people seem to enjoy the weather. I saw some people skating in a small man-made lake which was frozen over. During the training, I had calls from India and Singapore. There are issues that needed to be resolved and important emails to respond to. I forced myself to think through and answer or at least try to resolve the issues. I wanted to ignore this problems as I was inclined to but I had to force myself to focus on them. So I did not have time to help out in the training. But really I do not have the full expertise in this field as compared to my European colleague. In fact, it is only now that I get to understand some of the features.

I wonder if I am too old for this type of jobs. Walking up the office steps after coming in from the bitter cold made me feel old. My friend laughed when I said that this job is for young people. In fact all the people in the room are younger than me. I used to be one of the youngest during projects but I now find myself the oldest person around. But I guess I am not that old compared to the other people in the company. I am in between youth and experience and I am still glad that I get to do projects like these. Learning new things, meeting new (and younger people) and travelling to far places.

At the end of the day, there are few people who can still do this type of work. But this experiences will be less and less. There will be more localization and fewer travels. I am glad that I can keep up though by a slight thread. I am sort of the middle man between East and West, between business and technical, between young and old, between new and experienced. I guess my profile fits this kind of project where they need an old and seasoned 'veteran' who can shepherd the young into the new process. I still do have problems getting up to speed in the new process. Especially this application which is quite technical and specialized.

Snow in Asia

Yesterday night there was a light snow falling after we left the office. It was very cold and I was not used to it. I regretted that I did not bring more winter clothes. But the jacket, gloves and cap was enough to give me some warmth. We walked near the hotel to the famous street with department stores. We walked under the falling snow and found a food center that I used to go to in my past trips several years ago. I thought it closed down when I last walked these streets on my return a few months back.

I tried to buy the dumplings that I loved but they were not selling any. So we bought honeyed pork and rice and drunk the local snow beer. We talked about the economy and the coming recession. Everybody seems to be talking about the hardships ahead and the possible lay-offs or forced vacations. My colleague was saying that he may go on forced leave once the budget cuts are forced through. But despite the gloomy talks I feel a strange optimism. Strange because we have now started to receive mails on the stoppage of projects if they have not crossed the preliminary milestones.

The training for the past few days were good. I think the users now understand the application better. With the budget cuts and the project stoppages, the timing for the training was good. Otherwise, we may not have continued because we will be asked to postpone. Not it seems that it was a stoke of wise insight. I am glad to have pushed it and planned for my friend to come over from Europe. I may not see him again for a long time. The recession will be deep in Europe but I think will be short lived in the USA. I have this faith and optimism on the new administration that may be strangely unwarranted.

This morning it was lovely to see the snow on the trees across the hotel. It was also refreshing to see the snow on the cars, rooftops and sidewalks. It only snowed for a while last night so the city was not engulfed unlike in my past trips long ago. I always liked the snow in China because it is like another world. It's like snow in China or Japan or Korea is enough to elevate it into world ranks. Other Asian countries will never rise up because of the absence of snow. Perhaps snow gives a certain hardness and perspective to it's inhabitants.