Day 2 -bhagam bhag
Had to wake up early in the morning to get ready, 3 girls and one washroom, bahut na insafi hai.. finally managed to get ready by 9 and started for office. The bus stop is right opposite our building, and it also happens to be the first stop for the bus. We can watch the bus coming in to the stop before we start from home. We have a time table on our wall and follow that to catch the bus. And the buses are always bang on time.
When I went outside it was very chilly. Snow was being cleared off the roads. The snow doesn't really look that pretty when it's there for a long time.. looks dirty and brown.
The bus I had to catch was number 14. Here they do not have a separate conductor for the bus. Everyone enters from the front doors and swipes their bus pass on the fare on the machine that is next to the driver. If you dont have a pass you give the money to your driver and he gives u a ticket which is valid for an hour from that time. I had to take a ticket for the first day for 2.2 euros, had to borrow the money from sharmili as i only had hundreds and fifties with me. We took the ticket and sat in the bus. The buses have automatic doors (operated by the driver) and they close once all passengers have boarded.
The journey from pajamaki to kamppi was around 30 minutes. The route was scenic. When you get off the bus, you should get off from the doors in the middle of the bus, there is an empty place around this area with open seats where people with heavy luggage or prams can sit. Such people board the bus from these doors. The rest of us use those doors to get off the bus. There are stop buttons everywhere in the bus and the bus stops in the next stop when u press this button. You are not allowed to board or get off the bus anywhere else. People stand in the buses here too but, foot boarding is not possible as the doors are closed. Better to let go since you have a metro every 5 minutes
From kamppi we take a metro to ruoholahti where the nokia office is. The metro station is right behind the bus stop and we take escalators to go down. The escalators are very deep, like a 6-7 storied building under the ground. They never seem to end. We realised the metro was already there and we had to run down the escalator and straight into the metro. The moment i entered there was a beep sound and the doors closed. Akanksha told me that you are not supposed to enter after that beep coz the doors close and they will not open at any cost until the next stop. She was talking of a lady who tried to open the doors by sticking her bag in.. she had to leave the bag in the train.
OK so the journey from kamppi to ruoholahti takes less than a minute. They announce the name of the station before the train stops. We got out of the metro and got on to the excalator, which went up forever. One thing i forgot to mention is, you hardly see day light here and if it were not for your watch, you would never know what time it is. It was dark the day I came here when it was actually 4 in the afternoon. Things were not very different this day also. It was 9:30 and still dark.
The Nokia office is across the road from the metro and is a minute's walk away. I was wondering why there are so many busstops even within walking distance. Now I know why. People will die of cold if they go too far by walk. This place is FREEZING!!!!
We walked up to office and sharmili dropped me into my wing as I had no access. Here nobody asks you for your ID card before you enter coz the main door is access restricted. AND they dont check your bags while you are going in and out. There is no need to swipe in and out. Though the office timings are 8-4, people come and go as they please. They stick around only if they have work to do.
Parvez was already there before me and I went to meet challa(no one else had arrived). I used his laptop to check mails, and then went around to meet the other guys. I met some people I already knew like mohan, naveen and aseem and some I met for the first time, like kiran (cute smile, sadoo insaan), dennis (ok types, big biceps), utkarsh (sweet), naveen k (as i expected), basa (polite), nithin (indifferent). and then i waited for suresh(PM) to reach office. We met suresh (soft spoken, sharp eyes), and he handed over our laptops while dennis cleared a desk for me. Suresh introduced us to alex (manager).
I went down to the reception to collect my access card and found that they did not recieve any mail about my arrival. Parvez already had a card coz he was here ealier. I got a temporary card printed.
Through the first day I had very little work. We went for lunch with sharmili's lunch gang. Here there is a pantry in every wing and it is stocked with an oven, a dishwasher and a lot of cutlery, you can heat your lunch and eat in the plates provided, wash em up and put em back. There is also a coffee machine in every pantry. Here I met a few more people like ram (very sweet) and siby (dimpled). I never felt I was out of india, except when I looked out of the window and noticed the dark and gloomy weather.
In the afternoon we had to go the SSN office to get a letter for my bus pass. They usually take a SSN number, but since i was here on a BV they gave me a letter. This office shuts down at 3:15 and we started at 2:30. Suresh came to me and said , come and next min he vanished. in my hurry to follow him i forgot to take my cap nor button my jacket properly, nor to take money for the bus pass. Thankfully parvez had a muffler and enough money. We caught a bus and hurried to the SSN office where I got the letter for which they charged me 3.7 euros. When we got out there was a train on the road which we had to catch and then suresh said we'll run and catch the train. We ran for a while but my coat was very heavy and the roads wet, I was breathing very hard and told him I cannot run any further. So, we missed the train and had to wait for the next one which was in 2 mins.
We reached the central station where I got my pass made (45 euros) and then we went back to office. Finnish people pronounce 'j' as 'y' . The lady at the counter called me guyyari.
Me, sharmili and akanksha started for home at 6 in the evening. we went to buy groceries for the week. I was just amazed to see how fresh the vegetables and fruits were. They looked so flawless like the plastic ones we get to see back home. Of course they seemed very expensive, 3 euros for a kilo of brinjal... matlab almost 200 rs. :O (I must stop converting everything to rupees). Finally we bought all the stuff we needed for the week and started for home. I bought a SIM for my phone. It's very easy to get a SIM here. No identity proof required. It's just like buying anything else OTC.
Then we went home and started cooking. We had roti and alu gobi and then browsed a little on our laptops before we fell asleep.
Had to wake up early in the morning to get ready, 3 girls and one washroom, bahut na insafi hai.. finally managed to get ready by 9 and started for office. The bus stop is right opposite our building, and it also happens to be the first stop for the bus. We can watch the bus coming in to the stop before we start from home. We have a time table on our wall and follow that to catch the bus. And the buses are always bang on time.
When I went outside it was very chilly. Snow was being cleared off the roads. The snow doesn't really look that pretty when it's there for a long time.. looks dirty and brown.
The bus I had to catch was number 14. Here they do not have a separate conductor for the bus. Everyone enters from the front doors and swipes their bus pass on the fare on the machine that is next to the driver. If you dont have a pass you give the money to your driver and he gives u a ticket which is valid for an hour from that time. I had to take a ticket for the first day for 2.2 euros, had to borrow the money from sharmili as i only had hundreds and fifties with me. We took the ticket and sat in the bus. The buses have automatic doors (operated by the driver) and they close once all passengers have boarded.
The journey from pajamaki to kamppi was around 30 minutes. The route was scenic. When you get off the bus, you should get off from the doors in the middle of the bus, there is an empty place around this area with open seats where people with heavy luggage or prams can sit. Such people board the bus from these doors. The rest of us use those doors to get off the bus. There are stop buttons everywhere in the bus and the bus stops in the next stop when u press this button. You are not allowed to board or get off the bus anywhere else. People stand in the buses here too but, foot boarding is not possible as the doors are closed. Better to let go since you have a metro every 5 minutes
From kamppi we take a metro to ruoholahti where the nokia office is. The metro station is right behind the bus stop and we take escalators to go down. The escalators are very deep, like a 6-7 storied building under the ground. They never seem to end. We realised the metro was already there and we had to run down the escalator and straight into the metro. The moment i entered there was a beep sound and the doors closed. Akanksha told me that you are not supposed to enter after that beep coz the doors close and they will not open at any cost until the next stop. She was talking of a lady who tried to open the doors by sticking her bag in.. she had to leave the bag in the train.
OK so the journey from kamppi to ruoholahti takes less than a minute. They announce the name of the station before the train stops. We got out of the metro and got on to the excalator, which went up forever. One thing i forgot to mention is, you hardly see day light here and if it were not for your watch, you would never know what time it is. It was dark the day I came here when it was actually 4 in the afternoon. Things were not very different this day also. It was 9:30 and still dark.
The Nokia office is across the road from the metro and is a minute's walk away. I was wondering why there are so many busstops even within walking distance. Now I know why. People will die of cold if they go too far by walk. This place is FREEZING!!!!
We walked up to office and sharmili dropped me into my wing as I had no access. Here nobody asks you for your ID card before you enter coz the main door is access restricted. AND they dont check your bags while you are going in and out. There is no need to swipe in and out. Though the office timings are 8-4, people come and go as they please. They stick around only if they have work to do.
Parvez was already there before me and I went to meet challa(no one else had arrived). I used his laptop to check mails, and then went around to meet the other guys. I met some people I already knew like mohan, naveen and aseem and some I met for the first time, like kiran (cute smile, sadoo insaan), dennis (ok types, big biceps), utkarsh (sweet), naveen k (as i expected), basa (polite), nithin (indifferent). and then i waited for suresh(PM) to reach office. We met suresh (soft spoken, sharp eyes), and he handed over our laptops while dennis cleared a desk for me. Suresh introduced us to alex (manager).
I went down to the reception to collect my access card and found that they did not recieve any mail about my arrival. Parvez already had a card coz he was here ealier. I got a temporary card printed.
Through the first day I had very little work. We went for lunch with sharmili's lunch gang. Here there is a pantry in every wing and it is stocked with an oven, a dishwasher and a lot of cutlery, you can heat your lunch and eat in the plates provided, wash em up and put em back. There is also a coffee machine in every pantry. Here I met a few more people like ram (very sweet) and siby (dimpled). I never felt I was out of india, except when I looked out of the window and noticed the dark and gloomy weather.
In the afternoon we had to go the SSN office to get a letter for my bus pass. They usually take a SSN number, but since i was here on a BV they gave me a letter. This office shuts down at 3:15 and we started at 2:30. Suresh came to me and said , come and next min he vanished. in my hurry to follow him i forgot to take my cap nor button my jacket properly, nor to take money for the bus pass. Thankfully parvez had a muffler and enough money. We caught a bus and hurried to the SSN office where I got the letter for which they charged me 3.7 euros. When we got out there was a train on the road which we had to catch and then suresh said we'll run and catch the train. We ran for a while but my coat was very heavy and the roads wet, I was breathing very hard and told him I cannot run any further. So, we missed the train and had to wait for the next one which was in 2 mins.
We reached the central station where I got my pass made (45 euros) and then we went back to office. Finnish people pronounce 'j' as 'y' . The lady at the counter called me guyyari.
Me, sharmili and akanksha started for home at 6 in the evening. we went to buy groceries for the week. I was just amazed to see how fresh the vegetables and fruits were. They looked so flawless like the plastic ones we get to see back home. Of course they seemed very expensive, 3 euros for a kilo of brinjal... matlab almost 200 rs. :O (I must stop converting everything to rupees). Finally we bought all the stuff we needed for the week and started for home. I bought a SIM for my phone. It's very easy to get a SIM here. No identity proof required. It's just like buying anything else OTC.
Then we went home and started cooking. We had roti and alu gobi and then browsed a little on our laptops before we fell asleep.
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