“Your interaction with people of other cultures will only increase,” Colonel Gowri Shankar, Sierra’s trainer, told Mr. Kumar and half a dozen other young engineers, “and you should be equally at ease whether in Hyderabad or Houston. The Sierra programmers listened attentively as Colonel Shankar listed common complaint: speaking one of India’s many languages in front of foreigners, questioning colleagues about their compensation, and cracking ethnic jokes. He is compromising on punctuality and protocol.