Parakram Lazarus begins his hour-long journey to work each afternoon at about 3pm, eventually crawls into bed about 4am, wakes up about 12.30pm to 1pm, and then takes care of home life in the two hours that remain until he has to leave for work again. 

But Parakram is not a bartender.  Nor is he a novelist whose thoughts are driven by the dark.  

He's a Manager of Retention and Escalations with the difficult job of dealing with customers, fixing problems and ensuring that each once-sparring party walks away pleased.  He's a diplomat of sorts.  Why must Parakram mediate after midnight?  Because he works for A+, an internet services company headquartered in the United States and running on American time.  And after four months, while he's still not a fan of the nocturnal schedule, Parakram enjoys his job and respects the high level of customer service A+ strives to deliver.

"It doesn't matter if they're a small customer or our biggest revenue-generator," he insists.  "They're important.  If there are no customers, there's no business."

Parakram Lazarus grew up in Bombay, India.  His great-grandfather converted to Christianity years ago, and his parents, both active in the Roman Catholic Church, were often hosts to Christian missionaries - sometimes for months at a time.  This helped Parakram learn about the world and fuelled his passion for politics and journalism.  However, after high school, the hospitality industry was hot and he headed in that direction, receiving a degree from the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, in Arangabad, near the "black" Taj Mahal, a lesser-known, scaled down version of the famous landmark.  Not long after his first hotel job, Parakram jumped at the chance to explore the US by taking an internship in Cleveland, Ohio, with Hyatt Hotels.  They soon offered him a position and for the next three years, he worked long hours, but enjoyed the American Midwest's cars, nightlife and low cost of living.

He met Elena during her own internship with Hyatt.  And Elena, as you might have guessed, is Bulgarian.  But they had only dated a year before her programme ended and she headed back here.  Alone.  They lasted just six months without each other. 

"I only had two weeks vacation, so I flew to Bulgaria, met her parents, spent 12 days trying to get a stamp and signature for the Secretary of Internal Affairs to approve our marriage - talk about red tape - and then on the coldest day of 2004, we were married.  The next day I went back to the US."

Parakram had never before considered living in Bulgaria, but soon enough, he quit his job and headed East.  Because he grew up at a time when India was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union's communism, Parakram admits that he was excited to take a peek at what remained of the Iron Curtain influence.  Although getting here took two days of delays and shady hotels, he was welcomed by Elena's family, who went to work organising plumbers and masons and dry-wallers to renovate a flat for the newlyweds.        

But it wasn't long before Parakram landed a job in New Zealand and the couple hit the road together, this time to soak up the ecological gifts of island life.  However, they found this popular adventure vacation spot expensive, unfriendly and a little too cut off from the rest of the world.  After six months, they were back in Sofia to stay.  Now, Parakram enjoys a city small enough to walk through, inexpensive food, ski slopes only 25 minutes away and the mix of modernity and development.

And he doesn't see them leaving anytime soon. 

"My parents wonder why I choose to live in Bulgaria.  But I feel as though India and the US are both such extremes in terms of pace, business and quality of life.  Bulgaria is a very happy medium."