In 2008, when we were just starting out with a team of 5 developers, our clients Dan and Audrey who are frequest travellers visited India and also came to meet us. Below are some excerpts from their blog post from their blog Uncornered Market which they posted in the same year.
Not long after breakfast, we were sitting with Sharan and his business partner Rajiv, our previously virtual friends. They were the reason we had come to Chandigarh. Sharan had completed a small software project for me (to help put the finishing touches on our photo gallery) the year before. After the project, Sharan and I continued to stay in touch.
When he found out we were coming to India, we received an invitation to visit.
After we spent time in their office, Sharan and Rajiv invited us to wait out a power outage at their apartment.
They and their living quarters, an open one-floor plan shared by five young guys working in the IT and telecom sectors, represented the real-life profile of the Indian IT and outsourcing boom that you read about in newspapers. All of this – the office, the apartment, the outlook – was the face of India’s young and rapidly emerging middle class.
We sat down with Sharan and Rajiv together on a bed-cum-couch and continued asking questions of one another……..
………After lunch, we hopped on the backs of Sharan’s and Rajiv’s motorcycles and rode into town. We were thankful that Chandigarh sequestered its cows on its outskirts – fewer obstacles to dodge.
After spending two days and several meals together, we were sad to say goodbye; we sincerely look forward to returning some day.
While our face-to-face visit began in their office, it was the meal that really sealed our friendship. As it unfolded, we lived out a proverb: we shared food, we shared stories, we shared ourselves.