title: De-Bug: Voices from the Underside of Silicon Valley
author: Raj Jayadev
description: If you truly want to know Silicon Valley, in all of its complexity, then <i>De-Bug</i> is a must-read. --Toms Jimnez, associate professor of sociology, Stanford University<br /><br />Brilliant! A work of truth. <i>De-Bug</i> captures the heartbeat of the Silicon Valley. --Leila Steinberg, entertainment manager and founder, Aim 4 the HEART<br /><br />Whether selling blood for cash, demolishing pools for rich retirees, or hustling garage-sale goods, Silicon Valley's less-noticed denizens show an unexpected knack for grace, wit, and survival. --Kentaro Toyama, author of <i>Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _For Jaime Levine,_
  
  
  _whose editorial expertise and_
  
  
  _unbounded enthusiasm_
  
  
  _make this so much more fun_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## **Prologue**
  
  
  
  
  
  ### **Bangalore, India**
  
  
  
  
  
  **N** IGHT DESCENDED LIKE a curtain of scuttling insects, coming alive with
  the setting of the sun. The noise was atrocious, as was the stench of unwashed
  bodies, human excrement, rotting food, and decomposing bodies. The garbage of
  Bangalore shifted back and forth like a sludgy tide.
  
  
  
  
  
  Leonid Danilovich Arkadin sat in a darkened room that smelled of hot
  electronics, stale smoke, and cooling dosas. Firing up a cigarette with his
  chrome lighter, he stared down at the ribbed skeleton of Phase Three, part of
  the ever-expanding Electronic City rising out of the slums clinging to
  Bangalore like a disease. Electronic City, built in the 1990s, was now the
  world capital of technology outsourcing; virtually every major high-tech
  company had IT offices here, making it the hub of the technical support
  industry sp