Journey to the CitiCenter Mall

We took the train yesterday to the CitiCenter Mall in downtown Chennai. The train riding experience is a lot of fun and also a very cheap mode of transportation. A ticket costs 5 rupees about $.011, so it is by far the cheapest way to get around the city.

The mall caters to the upper class and most of the merchandise is as expensive if not more expensive than the US. 

Walking to the ticket counter

Indian Mall Food

Looking down at the first floor of the mall

Autumn loves the McDonald's "Happy Price Menu"

No Beef in India

Eating in the food court

Taken from the bridge over the street that leads to the train station...Indian rush hour

So tasty

My train ride

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have not been able to upload pics to the blog.

I went in my first Indian train ride today. The train station is an enormous concrete building probably 300 yards long that reminds me of cold war architecture. It seems to be far larger than is needed and has a lot of empty space.

The doors on the train do not close and you can hang outside...it's a lot of fun and quite dangerous.

Outside the train station

Inside the train station

A lot of empty space

Our ultimate destination was Santhome Basilica (St.Thomas Basilica), 1 of only 3 churches built over the remains of one of the 12 Apostles. The other churches are St. Peters Basilica in Rome, built over the remains of St. Peter, and Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela built over the tomb of St. James in Spain. We attended the 12:00 Mass and did some sight seeing around the Basilica. We also saw the tomb of St. Thomas, which is located directly under the alter of the Basilica.

Santhome Basilica

Windows on the church

Entrance to the Tomb of St Thomas

Jourdan's Paper Masala for lunch

Visiting Dhvani Research

Today I met with Dr. Krishnan Balasubramaniam at his company Dhvani Research. He is a really cool guy. He was a professor at Miss State for a while before he returned to India to teach at IIT. I will be helping implement an Enterprise Resource Planning software so that they can more efficiently manage their financing, accounting,  human resources and other aspects of the business. 

If you want to learn more about ERP's check out this link.   Info about ERP

Visit to IIT Campus and Larsen and Toubro Campus

 We went back to IIT campus to meet with Dr. Ramachandriah, a Civil Engineering professor.
Afterwards we went to lunch and had some delicious South India Food.

From there we went to the Larsen and Toubro Campus.

This is on the ground outside the Civil Engineering Building on the IIT-Chennai campus

 

Below are the buildings on the Larsen and Toubro campus

 Inside the L&T visitors center