While we have met many friendly people in our short time here so far and it is also apparent that the Indian nation loves celebrating at any opportunity possible, it came as somewhat of a surprise to wake up on Saturday the 15th August, officially the first day of our year off work having finished up in the Delhi office on Friday the 14th (Krishna's birthday by the way), to see on the television that the whole nation was joining us in rejoicing our new found independence from work!

Walking into the hotel lobby we were greeted with a 'Happy Independence Day Sir'. The same happened as we walked past the porter and got into a taxi. As we drove through the streets to the station we could not believe the hundreds of brightly dressed people joining enthusiastically into the - I should say our - celebrations all around us...

We were particularly pleased, I would not say surprised, to discover that the Prime Minister was even going to do an address to the nation in our honour!

As we reflected on this turn of events in the back of our cab, we started to consider the (unlikely) question of whether we had, perhaps, maybe got the wrong end of the stick and that, possibly, the whole of India may not be...all...that...bothered that we had just seen the back of excel spreadsheets and office canteens for the next year.

We were disappointed to find out that this was indeed the case. India appears to have a more 'important' event to celebrate than our last day of work - something about independence from an unjust rule (cough) in 1947.

I have to admit at this juncture, much of this update (so far) is entirly ficticious - so let's get on with it properly now.

So then - in the lead up to our very own independence day we have continued to mainly be stuck in an office and as such haven't really been exploring much. However, there are a few things that do stick out from this week.

The office fire drill. This might not be a particularly interesting but it is memorable as it was quite a different experience from back in the UK.

UK - A clear voice announces over the tannoy that a fire has been reported in the building, the fire marshals put on their bright jackets and lead us, orderly, to the fire escape where we walk down 28 flights of stairs and congregate outside the building. It is usually raining. If not then you are always surprised by the number of your colleagues who whip out the sunglasses. Men in suits and sunglasses do not look good, you would have thought everyone knew that.

Delhi - The siren goes off, the fire marshals don their jackets, we move quickly and smoothly to the nearest fire exit and start making our way down the stairs... so far, so good, so normal...3 flights down you spot 2 men resting in the stairwell and having a cigarette with a couple more just about to join them. You walk past them and down a few more flights and finally get outside and line up behind your team. No one is wearing sunglasses. Within 5 minutes you have your whole team laughing at you as the 40 degree heat has ensured you look just like you have just stepped, fully clothed, out of the shower. After another 10 minutes of watery shame one of the fire marshals comes over to you and points to a small group of 6 people who are huddled well away from the ordely lines and tells you that this is where you should be standing. You are a little confused as to why but as you begin walking towards the misfits it dawns on you that these are the only other white people in the entire place. The 8 of you stand in a circle (sweating) as outcasts.

The second memorable event was the office party - here again this begins the same as in the UK - you go to a nice venue straight after work, everyone gets a drink and some food starts coming out, you have a few mainly work based conversations and then within about half an hour the music in the club is turned up to full volume...You go to the bar as you can't hear anyone talk anyway and order a drink. The barman pours it for you and then stops...and asks you 'is that enough sir?' This has never happened before. You try your luck and (slowly so you do not give away the excitment bubbling up inside) shake your head...the barman keeps filling up your glass and asks you again 'Is that enough sir' - you decide not to push your luck any further. You pull out your wallet only to be waved back down as you discover it is a free bar all night. You express your unbelievable discovery to the first 3 people you end up in conversation with and find out pretty quickly that you are in an exclusive party of which only 2 who are both genuinely surprised and happy at this..this...fantastic set of bar rules as no-one else really drinks.

You turn around from the bar and the dancefloor is full of your colleagues. They are all sober. They can all dance. They can dance very, very well to the Bollywood tracks being played. You stand there and enjoy watching and then..nightmare...they look at you...

Me and Eleanor both got pulled onto the floor and had absolutely no idea what to do - the foot shuffling and air guitaring we can just about get away with in the UK wouldn't really cut the mustard here. There was really only one thing for it - to go totally over the top. We did this in style but apparently in my case it was not over the top enough - As a clarificatory point at this juncture, In the UK I am not that bad a dancer. Eleanor is. In India I am totally pathetic while Eleanor's disjointed arm waiving and headbobbing somehow passed the test with flying colours leaving me as the only person in the room unable to carry it off.

I went back to the free bar and asked for a whisky. I slowly shook my head again.

To finish up, the final thing to stick out from this last week of work was our very kind invitiation to the the Mundan ceremony for the child of a colleague I was working with in India.

This is a Hindu ceremony where a child has their first haircut - this is usually postponed until the baby is 1 or 3 years old. The reason behind this ceremony is that, according to Hindu beliefs, the hair present at birth represents unwanted traits from past lives. The shaving of the head therefore ensures a new beginning and a fresh start for the child. There are all kinds of interesting elements to the ceremony itself throughout the day but as these are reserved for the family we only joined towards the end of the day. A great experience really seeing everyone in their best, brightly coloured traditional dress all in one room and sharing the huge Indian buffet of fresh food.

So far then, we have had a good time here but are looking forward to begining our travels properly now which should mean that going forward we can give you some more exciting updates well away from the office!