Rajahmundry, India
State Andhra Pradesh
Region Coastal Andhra
District East Godavari
Founded by Rajaraja Narendra
Purpose: Installation of the first batch of Virteasy Dental V2 / VR simulators (https://www.virteasy.com)
Diary
Dates: 30 November – 5 December 2021
Visa Process: See previous post to Chennai, India.
Arrival
I was a little apprehensive coming to Rajahmundry, truth be told. It seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere. I had expected Chennai to be this beautiful town with lots of technology. The university was amazing, but the town was still chaotic. Lots of traffic, lots of noise, hard on the senses.
It didn’t get off to a great start, to be honest. Some guy followed me into the taxi. I assumed it was for a free ride and that’s cool, I would need the taxi with or without him, but my guard was up. Then he kept asking me how much money I earned (“it doesn’t matter how much you earn, it’s never enough”). Whether I could give him a job (“do you speak French?”). Whether he could come visit me in England (“I’m not often there”). I appreciated his tenacity to be fair. I also appreciated when we parted ways.
Anyway, Rajahmundry was very green, very calm and pretty cool. I liked it a lot.
Drama Calling James…
So, after being pretty distracted for the car journey, I got to the hotel and realised a couple of days later that I no longer had the books that this wonderful human being gave me. (In Karachi, Pakistan). Here I was telling the world how much they meant to me and I managed to lose them within a couple of days *face meet palm*.
My luck never ceases to amaze me. I managed to track down the taxi driver. Asked him if he found the books. “No”. Ok, maybe my luck is waning. Damn. I booked him in to take us to the university anyway. Plopped my bag in the boot and, what d’ya know? A little red bag in the corner with said bags. Maybe my luck isn’t waning, after all.
Getting to Work?
The college was awesome. They already had a number of simulators which made life a hella lot easier. Their IT team was on point and the whole setup was done in a flash. This is how we teach installations. Not how they actually go. Until now. Well played, India. Well played, indeed.
With the installation done, on came the onslaught of training post-graduate dentists. They didn’t like V1 at all. Thank god V2 was ready to go. They told me to just delete V1 – not worth the disk space. A little harsh but hey, it’s a good reference for V2. Cheers Unreal Engine.
The Food
Somewhat shamefacedly, I have no lustrous photos of food. Only a daily mix of the hotel buffet. Sorry to disappoint. When you’re traveling for work, sometimes that is life.
