No sweatshop here

Because the firm is relatively small, the programmers interact directly with both their bosses and the clients, chatting with them on MSN Messenger. Working via instant messaging makes it easy to keep a record of what has been discussed, and isn't anywhere near as expensive as an international phone call.

The three bosses here, Doshi, Shah and Ariz Kohli, 30, solicit business on the Web, sending out e-mails to potential customers that boast "Our offshore development center in India enables us to offer very competitive pricing." When the clients tell them what they want, the programmers estimate how many hours it will take, and the projects are priced by the hour. Clients pay $10 an hour for basic Web design, $15 for database programming, and $20 for more advanced coding, like cellphone or .Net work, for projects ranging from $2,000 to $20,000 or $30,000. That allows the programmers to be billed out at an average of $3,000 a month, Doshi explains.

The programmers work from about 10:30 or 11 a.m. to 8:30 or 9 p.m., to accommodate both their commute and the time difference with clients. Everyone gets Saturdays off, unlike other firms that require every other Saturday or every-Saturday hours. And the atmosphere is more casual, they say, than a typical firm in Mumbai. You'll find programmers listening to music on headphones at their desks and occasionally chatting with friends via instant messaging.

But they'll code all night to meet a big deadline. "Last Friday night, we had three people here until 5 a.m. in the morning. They had a big deadline, and they had to finish, and they spent the night here," says Shah, adding, "They're not going to come to me this morning, and say: 'I worked three extra hours. I want overtime.' They know it's part of their job."

Doshi says it's a two-way street: "If you need to get something done, it's your job to get it done. And if you don't have that much work to do, then we're not going to make you sit in the office in front of the computer for nothing."

And they're getting valuable experience; colleagues of theirs have recently been hired away, doubling their salaries by moving to huge firms like Tata Consulting Services and British Telecom.

When Webodrome places a 10-centimeter ad in the Times of India, advertising for programmers, the company will receive about 300 or 400 responses, 200 of which will be recent college graduates, Doshi says. Technical colleges send their students as unpaid interns to Webodrome to get trained for credit.

The surplus of recent college grads looking to get their foot in the door is often exploited by unscrupulous companies. Some small firms pay only 1,000 or 2,000 rupees a month, even after a six-month tryout. Other firms require a deposit of tens of thousands of rupees before they will hire you, which is repayable according to a contract, only after two years of service, says Dwpa. You cannot leave the company during that contract period, or you forfeit the deposit.

And some just demand really long hours -- 12 hours a day, not including the commute: "There are many companies that are doing this," says Deepa."That's the level of exploitation. If you're going home at 9 p.m. at night, they still expect you to come in sharp on time. Whether you reach your house at 12 at night, they do not care." She says when they work late at Webodrome, the managers aren't watching the clock the next day.

"In our jobs, when we get back home, our family is there. We can sit with them for an hour or two," says Reena. "We can have dinner with them and we can spend our weekends together, so that matters a lot."

Most evenings, the programmers take the long train rides home to their families, but on an occasional Friday night, they'll go out to dinner after work together, grabbing a bit at a Chinese, South Indian or fast-food joint: "any happening hangout."

Shah and Doshi enjoy a different sort of nightlife.

Shah spent three years studaying and working in the United States, receiving his MBA at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Afterward, he says, he didn't want to stay, in part because he found the American lifestyle too lonely. Now, after work, he gets together with friends from school every single day, sometimes for dinner or a movie, but often just to hang out for an hour at the local Barista -- India's chain-store answer to Starbucks.

The half dozen guys, who include the entrepreneur behind a Web match-making site, don't actually go into the Barista. They stand outside to smoke and chat. A cigarette hawker who does business from a small table on the cracked street in front of the cafe sells them individual smokes and mints. The nightly boys' club convenes at 8:30 for about an hour and takes place in sight of Mumbai's World Trade Center, a much shorter version of what used to stand in New York City.

Doshi's father was a COBOL programmer who went to the United States to study technology. Doshi is an American citizen but returned to India at age 8 with his mother after his father died, then went back to the U.S. at age 17 for college, returning again to India six years later.

On a typical night out, you'll find him meeting friends, such as an editor at Elle India and the scion of a Mumbai jewelry dynasty at the upscale bar-restaurant Indigo, where techno blares while dinner is still being served at 1:30 a.m. Chelsea Clinton recently went for brunch here, and the stalls in the bathroom even feature Go Card advertisements disguised as postcards, familiar to bar hoppers back in the U.S.

Doshi, who eats a Subway sandwich for lunch, uses a Logitech mouse, drinks Coke, and chooses between Bollywood hits like "Kal Ho Naa Ho" and Hollywood's latest when he goes out to the movies, isn't worried about the West changing the local culture: "The way I see it, it's 5,000 years old. It's not going away," he says.

The programmers who work for him have big aspirations. "I'd like to be the manager in a big company," says Sandeep.

"I'd like to compete with Bill Gates," kids Piyush, drawing approving giggles from his colleagues.

And Deepa and Reena say almost in unison: "Have our own company!" clasping hands.

As for the fears of American workers who look at companies like Webodrome and wonder what they mean for their own job security, Doshi relates a new development: In the early days of Webodrome, 90 percent of their clients were American, but now the firm gets a lot of work from Canada and Europe. In other words, other countries are catching on. "I don't see how they could possibly go about putting in any protectionist measures. It will kill their companies."

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