C'est la vie

Priorities

2010-09-30T18:49:00.001-04:00

I am a firm believer that nothing is impossible; it’s just a matter of setting priorities. That I am updating this blog after 4-5 months is sheer indication that I was overly lazy (lazy is my de facto state). In fact, it surprises me that a few months back when nothing interesting was happening in my life except time crunch and extreme frustration, I still managed to write a few lines every now and then. Whereas now when my life is taking new shapes and I have enough time, it’s sad that I am not penning down these interesting changes.

So to my future 80 year old self and a handful bored souls who may stumble across this blog, here are some memories to share.

First off, I got a job. OK, I remarked that in my last post also. But then it deserves a mention again because honestly that was a turning point in my life. It’s only been a few months since I landed a job but I am truly enjoying the team, the work and everything else. Texas seems to be a fun place to live in as well – lots of desis to hang around with (definitely more than what I had in RI). I also attended a couple of exciting Aligarh meet with a few more in pipeline to wrap this year up, including a Mushaira with renowned Nida Fazli marking the SS day. The AR Rahman Concert was also amazing, though on the flip side the dance performance by the troupe made me realize that we really didn’t deserve the applause we received for our 2-minute bollywood dance performance at MSB few months back. Bottomline: choreographed group dancing is not easy!

Last weekend was extra special. I went to Dallas to attend a friend’s wedding ceremony (my first in the US). Had loads of fun, recollected old memories and made new friends.

All in all, for the first time in my life I can positively say that I am here to stay; at least for a few years. For those who know me, this is a huge deal. I have never called any place ‘home’ since Aligarh. Now that’s about to change‼

events leading to MBA graduation and beyond

2010-05-31T14:12:00.005-04:00

If there is one thing I am struggling of late, it is keeping this blog up-to-date. It's not even writer's block (I never understood what it actually means) but sheer laziness despite the fact that my life has endured amazing ups and downs since my last post several aeons back. Although the laziness is still kicking in, I better write something today or else the month will be over and I will slack for another couple of weeks.

Certain things have happened in the last couple of months that I will always cherish and others that will remind me of the dire times of my life. The good thing is that those dreaded days of hopelessness are over. No, it’s not about coursework. On the contrary, I had only two simple courses this mod – Economics of Strategic Behavior by the very awesome professor Dong and the boring Leadership and Business Ethics II. No, I am talking about the horrifying job market of 2009-2010 (for some reason it aptly sounds like a movie title‼) Yes, the frustration, especially among the international students had hit the roof and there was no hope at all. Nada. In terms of Kübler-Ross model, our situation progressed from denial to anger to depression and lastly, to acceptance. To put things into perspective, at one point I even applied to a couple of analyst level positions paying much lower salary‼ Luckily for me, the pain stopped there. I got a job with a big oil company in my area of interest, thus becoming the first and only international student to get a job in the US at that time. Fortunately, the job market has improved at an unprecedented speed since then. If only the situation had improved a few months earlier, we could have enjoyed our MBA days even more. For me it meant taking other interesting courses and learning Spanish besides attending the numerous social and cultural events that take place in the university every so often. But this fact did not deter me from making the best use of the two weeks between my job acceptance and graduation: I did skydiving, motorbike trip from DC to RI/Boston, paintball, etc etc… I also attended the amazing speaker series of the university that included, inter-alia, Muhammad Yunus (Nobel laureate), APJ Abdul Kalam, Hank Paulson, and Richard Branson. Finally the day arrived, May 21st 2010, when I was officially conferred the MBA degree.

The days after MBA and before my move to Texas have slowed down a bit though, mostly because of relocation activities – the selling of stuff at craigslist, finalizing plans, completing paperwork for the job, etc. Lastly, to celebrate the employment of all the roommates and before we part our ways across different parts of the country, we threw a party last night that featured a good mix of Indian and American food. My personal achievement: I finally learned to make amazing chicken korma and tandoori chicken :)

Beijing and Shanghai - The Global Residency

2010-03-22T13:18:00.006-04:00

The capstone Global Residency program came to an end last week. To make the best of the three week break (I am missing the first week of classes), I visited Beijing before the Shanghai residency, and my folks back home in India after that. Here are a few highlights that I noted during my stay in the middle kingdom.

• There is an amazing willingness among local folks to speak English. Since Chinese people are still very shy about speaking English in public, they seek every moment to practice with foreigners. To give some perspective, I was stopped by a woman at a giant metro station (people’s square) in Shanghai for a quick chat. Accompanied by her husband, she started some small talk but when I replied that I am in a hurry, she said in a very cute and innocent manner that she just wanted to practice her English! Similarly, another student started talking random stuff with me outside the Shanghai Museum. Later she acknowledged that she was simply practicing her English.
• Shanghai is a very modern and developed city comparable to the likes of Atlanta, SLC, or even NYC, with lots of skyscrapers and overpasses. Shanghai is divided into two parts by the Huangpu river (often shortened to Pu) – Pudong and Puxi (dong means east and xi means west; of the river ‘Pu’).
• Beijing is more traditional. It has more historical relevance and one can still spot hundreds of historical relics and structures around the city. It is relatively inexpensive compared to Shanghai (e.g. a subway from any station to any costs 2RMB vs 3 in Shanghai).
• Beijing also houses Forbidden City, Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, South of Tiananmen (old city), Temple of Heavens, etc. However, I did not like Temple of Heavens that much, and frankly, you will get bored with the same architecture after a while too. The Wall of Echo in the Temple of Heavens was a complete bummer. It was supposed to guide the echo around a curved wall to any other spot in the structure. Unfortunately, there was no trace of mine’s or anybody else’s echo (or for that matter even voice). As for Great Wall, an old saying says it all: you haven’t been to China if you haven’t been to Great Wall.
• Spitting is still common on Chinese streets.
• Despite great roads and well marked lanes, Chinese have yet to learn the proper way to drive. They still honk for no reason and patience seems to be the least of their concerns. Surprisingly, it still baffles me that I did not see any scratch in the cars or accident on the streets.
• Tipping is verboten in China. Everyone returns the exact change and does not expect you to leave any tip either. There is some solicitation at some places, but I realized that none of them were too pestering. Once you say no, you can get rid of them pretty easily. Although I have heard stories of people getting ripped off at some shady massage parlors, I did not have any such experience. At least not in China.
• Usually, you can bargain at some shops but not to the extent I was initially expecting. Neither do the shopkeepers (or their minions) come running after you even after you have left the shop offering your ‘last final price’. Even the Cheap Street (called Cheapu in Shanghai) or the HiTech electronic market was easy to shop. More importantly, it was fun negotiating with sign languages or by entering your wish price in the calculator. If the other party likes it then ok else he will either enter another number or simply turn the calculator off (signaling no further interest in bargaining with that price!)
• A couple of my friends even bought fabrics and got some suits tailored at ridiculously cheap prices.
• Peking Duck is one of the famous dishes of Beijing. It is supposedly cooked overnight that gives its almost butter-like melting taste while being crispy on the outside. Sea Cucumber is also huge but it was a little bland to my taste.
• Hunan dish is another famous Chinese cuisine. It comes from the Hunan province in China. One word to describe this cuisine would be spicy. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that its dishes contain 50% chili/peppers.
• You need addresses written in Chinese no matter where you are going. Do not try to remember the names of the places because trust me, it is not easy to master the pronunciation that they can understand. Since Chinese people “chinesize” all English words, it is futile saying the name of a famous hotels either (e.g. mei jiu dian for Meridien hotel)
• You can exchange US dollars at amazingly good rates at any bank. The banks don’t charge any commission fee either unlike the folks at the airport who can charge upto 50 RMB per transaction.
• One particular thing that struck me is that when it rains (and it rained almost half the time I was there), umbrella vendors could be spotted at each and every subway entrance and exits, street corners, and everywhere else. They sold umbrellas at a fixed price of 10RMB. However, one of my classmates managed to buy one for 5 RMB too!
• For the upcoming Expo 2010, Shanghai is being prepared the way Beijing was prepared for the Olympics. We met with the president of the Expo organizing committee in Shanghai and were marveled by all the detailed preparation that is going on to make it the most lavish of all expos. Almost all the nations in the world will take part in this expo and ca 70 million visitors are expected for the fair opening in May 2010. We were told that they relocated a huge number of people and industry at the heart of Shanghai to make way for this mega event. In a city where any empty space is a luxury, let alone a green area, this expo has lots of greenery that will remain there even after the end of expo. Visit http://en.expo2010.cn/sr/video/index.htm for more info.
• We also went to the new Shanghai port. Although a little disappointing because of the initial low traffic right now, the highlight of the port is the 32 km (20 mi) long bridge that connects mainland to the port. This was second longest bridge until another one was built very close to Shanghai only. The reason for this bridge is that the water is quite shallow near the mainland (only 7m). So to reach a depth of 13 m they had to build a port 32 away.
• The Bund is the western bank of the Huangpu River and is the most recognized areas in many of the Shanghai photographs. Surprisingly, the word Bund is derived from the Urdu word band, which means embankment, levee or dam. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bund

I leave this post with an incident that brings smile and surprise to me every time I read it. Picture yourself standing in the middle of a big metropolitan city. You are told that there is a performance starting in 30 minutes somewhere within a 2 mile radius. Oh, and yes, you do not speak the local language and have no idea where it could be happening. The chances of you making it to the performance is zilch, right? Well, it worked out well for me in Shanghai when I was separated from my group in the subway station. With no clue, I took a random train and got off after two stops (I knew it was not far away from where I was). Since I had given almost all hopes of making it to the performance (a Chinese acrobatic troupe), I started taking random pictures and walked in a direction that I assumed would lead me back to our hotel. After about 20 minutes I spotted a building that got my attention for no particular reason. I took a couple of steps and noticed that a lady was beckoning at me. When I approached her she asked if I were Mark. I shook my head but instead of returning, I asked her if she represented Georgetown (again for no particular reason). To my utter shock, she nodded YES. Soon I was the last one to be escorted by her to the brilliant performance by Chinese acrobats.

PS: since Chinglish is so popular, here a brief look at some of the funny ones I captured

Now that's insane

2010-02-09T19:58:00.004-05:00

I am furious... No, I am not talking about Superbowl or even Sarah Palin writing cues on her palm. I am talking about the ridiculous amount of snow that is covering DC like a shroud. Whereas Boston and NY are dry, DC is breaking records.

Usually, I am not the kind of guy who makes a fuss about snow and weather in general. But the recent events are indeed unique. It started off when Friday classes were called off. It made sense, and so did the cancellation of our international day, which was supposed to feature me in the Bollywood dance, and a few other key events scheduled for the weekend. But calling off classes on Monday... and then Tuesday!! That is f'ing retarded (Source: Rahm Emanuel) because it was warm and cozy the last two days. Sure, the sidewalks were all snowy and dangerous, but seriously, is that the best excuse you can come up with? With that mentality and given the snow preparedness of DC, I doubt we can open the university even after a week. Don't believe me. Well, let's see. For the moment, the school has been closed for tomorrow also. In GU's defense, it is expected to snow 10-20 inches again tonight. If the classes remained canceled Thursday, it will mark a one week closure because of snow. Not that I hate the makeup classes on weekends, it's just that I do not want to have my maiden visit to China disrupted. Oh, yes! the awesome trip to Beijing and Shanghai is only a few weeks away. Adios amigos.

PS: to put things into perspective, here's a youtube sample

Credit card fraud: a different take

2009-12-22T11:32:00.001-05:00

The phone call took me off guard. I juggled my expression from delight to disbelief and apprehension to understanding as the lady explained to me in detail what just happened. Apparently, someone tried to use my credit card data to book a flight in one of the Scandinavian airlines, but the super, ever-vigilant MasterCard preemptively blocked the transaction after noticing the unusual activity. Time to rejoice, right? Well, no. Call me a diehard cynic or a crazy skeptic but I have reasons to suspect that this foul play was MasterCard’s brainchild itself.

First, at the very least, I am a sensible and disciplined credit card user who has never used the card at any unsecure point of purchase (PoP). Given the fact that I have traveled a lot recently in Europe and paid for my trips using the same credit card, it is surprising that the Mastercard sensed this “fraud” that was similar to my past purchasing patterns. After all, doesn’t a credit card transaction mean just using the card details? Or do they somehow sense who exactly is using the card too? If that were the case, they should have caught my brother first who also uses my card occasionally. And finally, even if I agree that someone hacked my credit card details and that MasterCard somehow figured out the abnormal purchasing pattern, why would the hackers, who are usually a bunch of smart geeks, use it at the stupidest place where they are most likely to get caught? I mean transaction is not everything; you need to get some benefit out of it also, right? It is easier to get some material benefit out of a grocery store than getting on and off of a flight that was booked using a stolen credit card. And yes, mine is a low limit card too. Didn’t the hackers figure that out and instead tried someone else’s before mine? Chances are I will notice a few grand missing from my statement before Paris Hilton would.

Bottom line, I suspect anything happened other than MasterCard trying to create a halo image for itself OR there was a glitch in the system or something. I remain suspicious.

Have you hugged an international student lately?

2009-10-29T11:27:00.004-04:00

This post was originally written by my friend, Mike. I am generously reproducing it here word-for-word.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine packing up and moving to a foreign country, say China for example, and beginning a two-year full time MBA program. All your classes are in Chinese, your books are in Chinese, three out of the five team members in your group are from China, you live in an apartment in a city that you don’t know, your best friends are going to bed when you’re waking up, and your mom and dad are literally on the other side of the planet. To say you’re a little homesick is an understatement.

In class you can follow along, but struggle with complicated concepts like economics and organizational behavior, since although you can speak and understand the language, your level of vocabulary doesn’t include all the technical jargon from business, law and medicine. In meetings you sometimes feel lost and don’t understand all the idioms, slang and inside jokes from the native speakers in your group. To top it all off, you attend the career fair and find out that only six out of the fifty employers represented will even take your resume since you’re not a Chinese citizen. You wish you had time to enjoy the night life, but studying for classes takes twice as long since you have to constantly reference your English-Chinese dictionary.

As difficult as all that may sound, many of our international classmates in the MBA program are dealing with very similar challenges. Some of them have left their families, friends, and even spouses and children back home for the pursuit of a world-class business education.

Something that I am proud of is being part of an MBA program that is very close-knit, collaborative, and fun. I’ve said it a hundred times, but last year was probably the best year of my life. When we have tailgates, themed parties, and cultural events, easily half of our program shows up. But what about the other half? What about those students who don’t enjoy going out to a crowded bar or a noisy tailgate? Unfortunately, many of the students missing from these events are our international students.

I’d like to challenge everyone reading this to work on making the Fisher College a more welcoming place for our international students. Look past the cultural differences and language barriers and realize that everyone is a human equal.

To the domestic students reading this, make an honest effort to connect with the international students, especially within your groups. Create an environment where questions, opposing opinions and asking for clarification is welcomed anytime. Instead of hanging out with the same twelve people every weekend, branch out a little. I’ve learned so much about the world around us by connecting with and hearing the experiences of many of the international students in our class. I even stayed with Claus’s family for a couple days when I was in Germany this summer for my internship (Thanks again Claus!). We are so lucky to have them in our program to learn from and grow with.

And to the international students out there, I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone a little. Realize that getting an MBA is only partially about the education. Come out to the EOTWs and other events organized by our social committee. Don’t be afraid to speak up in your group meetings. If you don’t understand something, simply ask. We had some of the funniest conversations that drew us closer as a group from some of these questions last year. And ask us for help anytime, we’re more than willing to give it.

Unless you take a job with the World Bank or the United Nations, you’re never going to be in such a rich, diverse cultural environment. Make the most of it while you still can.

One love,

Mike ^_^

“People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live. Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist.” - Daisaku Ikeda (Japanese peace activist and leader of Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International)

TSA: the borne identity

2009-09-26T23:01:00.011-04:00

I have always loathed, despised, and swore at the very thought of this post-9/11 born federal agency called TSA. Yet after some eight years, I am seeing a volte-face - in TSA's behaviour and their efficiency in handling passengers/their belongings.

Case in point, my recent trip to New Orleans. No, those days with regular vacation are over for me. This trip concerned a career fair (though fun at Bourbon street was a no brainer!!). Anyhow, from greeting and thanking everyone at every instance, the TSA personnel were extremely courteous. When my friend incidentally forgot to collect his laptop after the security checkpoint, the TSA kept it in a safe and handed him graciously with a nice smile when he returned to collect it. They also seemed to crack jokes with the passengers and indulged in a few small talks, which, imho, didn't seem affected in any way. Wonder if this metamorphosis is here to remain or will it worsen come any new "security threat"!

Apropos New Orleans, the best part of my trip was, inter-alia, the sampling of traditional New Orleans cuisine - Jambalaya, rice and beans, and xxx (something I don't remember anymore). But the feather in the cap were the Alligator nuggets I had for appetizer (though, in retrospect, I regret eating it)...

A long post long overdue

2009-07-19T12:13:00.006-04:00

Summary:

Obviously a lot has happened in the last one month. First off, my friend Anas paid me a visit and we had a nice time together in Bonn and Cologne. I also visited Paris for two days. I have also moved to a new hotel where everyone else is in: G-Hotel. Since Germans pronounce ‘G’ as ‘Gay’, the name itself has become a subject of laughter. Last but certainly not the least, last week was phenomenal. Here the details.

Paris:

The two day trip to Paris was action packed and quite memorable. It started with the onward journey. To save some bucks I planned the trip with a Depeche Mode bus concert. The bus was supposed to leave from Cologne at 8:00 am Saturday. I took the tram from Bonn to reach Cologne at 7:45. As luck would have it, of all days, the ever punctual German trains got delayed because of a defective train ahead on the tracks. I had to jump off at one of the stations, run toward another, and finally hop on another train. Finally I made it to the rendezvous at 8:05 just before we left.

The journey was quite relaxed though… well too relaxed for my taste. It took 6 hours to reach Paris – an hour too late. We decided to leave an hour earlier the next day because a couple of us had to catch the last train from Cologne to Bonn at 00:15 hours. I bade goodbye to the concert fans and headed towards the metro station and bought a carnet (a set of ten metro tickets that cost €11.40 instead of €1.60*10 – quite a bargain, that is). I should stop at this point and say that Metro is THE best way to go about in Paris. The tickets are generally valid in zones 1-3, which basically covers all the tourist spots of Paris. Plus you can travel in almost all the trains – RER or Metro. The transfers, etc are well marked and unless you are an idiot you will find your way to the appropriate platform with ease. Interestingly, at most stations there are separate platforms for each train going in any direction.

Eiffel and Louvre being on the top of my list, I immediately went to Louvre. But realizing that they close it at 1730 or 1800, I decided to hit it next morning and spend some quality time there. After taking some snaps of the pyramid I went to see the Eiffel Tower. I debated for a while whether to climb the tower then or after sunset. After some deliberation I finally purchased the ticket up to the 2nd level (stairs cost €3.50 for students; I got one without even showing my student id. Apropos, no id-check I got a student’s account opened with Deutsche Bank without showing any proof of my student status.) Anyway, the line for the third level elevator car was huge. I let go of my urge to go to the third level and came down instead.

On the way to Notre Dame I stopped at a couple of places and savored the local cuisine and exquisite French café. Interestingly Paris has something to offer at every corner. At around 2330 I again went to Eiffel to take a glimpse of its night-life before checking in at the hostel. But thanks to the ridiculous French system of putting the street names at weirdest places, it took me a while to find my hostel. Since this was supposed to be my first hostel experience, I was a bit nervous. But then it was just one night. I wanted to sleep immediately but remembered to charge the dead digicam battery. Unfortunately the French have a silly plug with a pointing ground pin in the middle that doesn’t let my adapter fit the bill. Moreover, since the French are worse than Germans as far as understanding of English is concerned (but still better than Italians,) I didn’t bother to ask around for an adapter even though the battery was completely out of juice. Instead I took one of the six beds in that room and slept like a log for the next 7 hours. Except for a few faint noises from guests – usually backpackers and students – coming and leaving, the night was peaceful. In the morning I met an American student in the room who offered me his adapter, and with that, life to my camera. Later, after having a typical French breakfast with baguette etc, I went straight to the largest museum of the world – Louvre.

After a solid three hour of brisk walking across one room to another inside Louvre, I had checked out almost everything worth seeing (although the tiny Monalisa was quite a disappointment amidst huge lively paintings and statues). With long walks a day earlier and a lot more to go, I realized that my dogs were barking. I took some rest at Notre Dame – only a couple of blocks from Louvre before my next destination - La Defense, a classy and interesting assortment of modern architecture. An hour later I left Defense for Arc de Triumphe, George V, and a few other buildings and stuff like that. With two more tickets from the carnet left, I went to Sacre-Coeur in Montmarte, Paris’s kinda downtown looking area with lots of café and shops at the foothill and uphill alike. After having a filling late lunch there I left for the Stade de Paris to catch our bus back to Cologne.

We were already twenty minutes late from our scheduled departure. Since one of the guests was still missing, I took the opportunity to strike a nice conversation with the bus driver. I told him that a few of us have to catch the last train at 00:15, otherwise we would have to spend 5 hours at the station. He acknowledged my concerns by telling how mad he was when he had to spend a couple of nights at railway station just because he had missed the last train. Having made sure that the driver understood our situation, I relaxed once the bus started to roll some 5 minutes later. The driver said that catching the last train might be a close call but I was surprised to see that he didn’t make any effort to make that happen. I mean speed limit was 100 but even if he had set the cruise to 102 instead of 98, we could have gained a few precious moments! I took solace in the fact that perhaps he will cut short his planned 45 minute break by a few minutes. It turns out he didn’t care. He took an exact 48 minute break. Seeing no amount of remorse or effort on the driver’s face, I wondered if the German way of going exactly by the books is really all that helpful. Won’t a little bit of flexibility added to their perfectionist and disciplined stance only add value and make everyone’s life more easy and…well humane? Almost shouting at the driver for keeping a pessimist attitude of not making it on time I asked him to take the exit toward the station even though the clock had just ticked 00:15. Now I could see the train almost leaving the station. Quite sure of not making it to that station, I asked the driver to take a right turn toward the next station. Luckily the lights were all green and we reached the second station just moments before the train arrived. I thought of showing the finger at the driver but the action packed thrill of making it to the train and the exciting Paris experience made me forget all his stupidity and coldness.

The Awesomest Trip:

There are a few things I reeeallly like about Germany –Broetchen, ice cream, chocolates, etc. But one thing that I really adore is the Autobahn. This was the only reason I planned what I call THE TRIP: Bonn→ Ulm → Konstanz → Schaffhausen → Zurich → Schaan, Liechtenstein → Vadus, Liechtenstein → Innsbruck → Oberperfuss, Austria → Neuschwanstein → Munich → Ulm → Bonn. An 1850 Km adventure spanning four countries and 12 cities. A few key facts:

* Bonn is the old capital of Germany. There are still few embassies, mostly of poor African countries to be seen. The headquarters of DHL is here. Deutsche Telecom, T-Mobile, DeutscheWelle, UN are a few other key employers.
* Ulm has the tallest cathedral in the world. Also happens to be the place where one of my best friends lives.
* Schaffhausen is famous for Rheinfalls: the largest waterfall in Europe.
* Zurich is crap…. nothing to see but a dull lake. The rest of Switzerland is paradise. The Alps is the feather in the cap.
* I was nervous about Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries of the world. I was told that the schengen has not been fully implemented yet. Turns out the border with Switzerland couldn’t be more open. Though it’s easy to miss this small country. Just as Swiss write CH to their country, so does Liechtenstein write FL in front of their cities to identify themselves.
* Schaan is the largest city of Liechtenstein; Vadus is its capital.
* Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany is visible from Oberperfuss in Austria; the place we spent a night.
* Neuschwanstein castle is the most photographed place in Germany.
* Munich is awesome!
* The route we took is here: http://tr.im/sf6K
* Check out my facebook or orkut profile for photos.

Miscellaneous:

A few words about my internship and further plans before I put down. The first part of my internship is almost over. Hopefully I will get my ideas implemented before I leave, which btw is a great feat in such a highly complex organization that is also quite bureaucratic. The second part of the project has just started and I am still figuring out the best way to deal with the problem.

My American friends threw the July 04th party, the day there was a concert going on in Bonn. It was a nightmare seeing German teenagers already getting wasted by 3-4 pm. They had created a mess in the train and empty/broken bottles were to be seen on the sidewalk and streets (photo). Bonn, already a dirty city compared to the rest of Germany, was a complete mess. The ruckus left the trams running late and at times even cancelled. I had to walk a couple of miles to get the train and scramble myself into a packed train that can be challenged only by Mumbai local trains. Anyway, we had a very memorable party that whole day. The weather played along too and everyone had fun until we started to return at midnight. While over a bridge that saw a packed crowd of wasted teenagers coming from the concert, one huge guy came towards me and suddenly blew a kick at my chest and face. I barely managed to avoid the complete impact that left me with a slight bruise on the forehead and my glasses on the autobahn alongside. It took me a while to understand the whole situation. The guy was not drunk for his blow was definitely not inebriated. I reckon drugs or simply a racial act. Anyway, the guy got lost in the crowd before I could even react while someone jumped over the autobahn and fetched my glasses. It was quite a bizarre experience.

That’s it for today. In the coming weeks I plan to go to Luxembourg and Brussels. Quite excited about all the fun that is in stores before we leave Deutschland!

PS:
(1) The French are not as fastidious as Germans as far as recycling and environment is concerned. Saw plastic bags used casually in supermarket and don’t think that they use Pfand (deposit) on beverage bottles either (in Germany you will hardly find any bottle less than 2 litres not having Pfand amounting to as much as 25¢, including coke cans and other such bottles).

(3) Saw this Hunde Bier (Dog beer) at July 04th party :)

(2) The Cologne-Bonn subway system (KVB and VRS) is badly planned. Undoubtedly they run on time, etc but their fare system and the way it is organized is horrible. Hardly anybody knows what a Kurzstrecke is, when and where a zone ends, which ticket to take, how to validate, and so on. Since there is hardly any control, there aren’t many people who buy tickets either (most have so called job tickets that are ridiculously cheap).

My first post from Bonn, Germany

2009-06-12T09:43:00.003-04:00

Prelude:
Visa: As told before, I had completed and sent all the necessary paperwork for internship with DHL way back early in April. Since then I waited for a month to receive the work permit/authorization from DAAD. Upon receiving, I immediately tried to make an online appointment with the Germany Embassy, which thankfully is a walking distance from my home. But surprisingly, in this land of technology online appointment is unheard of in the German Embassy. Bad enough, one MUST call a number and pay $2.49/min to make an appointment. Worse still, you may end up waiting endlessly for the agent to be free and serve you. And yes, no word on how long it may take while they suck the money out of your card! In all, I paid like $36 to get two appointments. Absolutely ridiculous! Though the visa itself was easy to get except that I had no medical insurance for the last 15 days of my visit. The consulate promised to process the visa while I got the insurance.

Ticket: That the air prices fluctuate is no wonder; a one-way ticket being more expensive than a return ticket is surprising; but the prices range from $500-$3000 for similar flights is simply stupefying. Just for the stupid reason that I can’t take a one-stop cheap flight via Toronto without a transit visa to Canada, I was left with booking a flight that cost $1844. Fortunately, DHL is paying for the flight.

The Journey:
I must admit I have experienced a lot more Germany this time around than ever before. The reason is that during all my previous trips I lived in the same hotel, had a car on weekends, and pretty much most of the things were taken care of. In contrast, this time I am in a different city – Bonn – and have to take care of myself in every way. Certainly getting used to public transportation was one thing but there were a few other stuff that were different. It started with Lufthansa-Deutsche Bahn partnership. After an awesome business class travel from DC to Frankfurt (Lufthansa upgraded me for free once again!), I was in for a surprise. My boarding card for the “flight” from Frankfurt to Cologne/Bonn, LH-XXXX, turned out to be for a train journey where I had to transfer and carry the luggage myself. Not that big a deal, especially after Lufthansa greeted all international arrivals at their new Welcome Lounge with shower, breakfast, etc. Anyway, the frustration started at Cologne station. With only a couple of Euros with me I looked for banks to exchange the dollars. Apparently, only Reise Bank exchange currencies but at exorbitant rates (and charges: €2 + 2% up to €10). Then the fun started. I had to schlep my baggage all across the station to different platforms in search of a train #16 that goes to my destination. Finally someone told me that the train I am looking for is a subway-train and is stationed at the other side of the station. Ironically, just before I boarded the subway I saw the majestic Koelner Dom standing right outside the window bringing back the wonderful old memories from my trip of 2002. Too bad I had to leave.

The Internship to date:
I started the internship – at least officially – on May25, 2009. Project seems to be going smooth and easy. My manager is not very demanding and gives me enough space for myself – just like I had wished. There was already a laptop ready for me. Turns out it was IBM T41 – predecessor to the today’s much popular T61. Regrettably I didn’t like it a bit. The worst being the absence of windows and right-click buttons. Even the placement of home/end/pgup/pg dn/delete is absolutely non-ergonomic. Ideally, delete should be placed near to arrow buttons and home/end buttons. For certain reason there are forward/back buttons that no one needs. Not to mention, I never understood the need of track pad AND point mouse in one. Anyway, I am not complaining for the three months that I am here. Apparently IT, together with many other integration issues among Detutsche Post, DHL and Exel, is still in its infancy in this organization. Perhaps that’s the reason even DHL employees have to pay the same market rate for couriering official documents anywhere! Although, I believe the CEO (Frank Appel) is doing a great job.

In and around Bonn:
Even before we started our internship, DHL had warned us that we need to register ourselves at Bundesamt (federal office). Since I never did that in any of my previous stints, I took it easy and only after a week did I complete the one-minute registration process. Apparently, one must do that every time the residence location has been changed. In any case, the good thing is that they gave me a booklet full of coupons to different museums and other niceties. Last to last weekend against the drizzling rain, I went to the Beethoven Haus – the birthplace of the legend. It was a nice tour, except that most of the descriptions etc was in German. The last part of the trip was a 3-D video rendition. What’s interesting is that you could actually move the mosaics floating and dancing to the tune of the Beethoven’s composition using joysticks – an awesome experience. Apropos 3-D, heard that UP is awesome in 3-D. I can’t wait to see that… am in no mood to watch that in German, though.

Coming back to the story, subsequent to B-haus I visited City Museum, Egyptian Museum, and Arithmeum. Unfortunately, all except Arithmeum were predominantly for German speaking people. Arithmeum was awesome. It depicted the evolution of numerical computation since the pre-historic ages. Old mechanical calculators based on cams and mechanical levers were simply worthwhile. Even better, people were allowed to try their hands on them. There were also some displays related to microprocessor and its evolution.

Last week we had a small nice party at the other hotel where most of the MBA interns are living. It was nice to meet them. I was glad though that I am in a better hotel sans Internet. I mean, even the other hotel had no Internet, as is usual in Germany even in this age, but they provided a few netbooks with internet connection upon zillion complains. Not sure who came up with this brilliant idea to provide a couple of netbooks for us to surf the internet instead of just installing a cheap wireless router!

Currency Exchange:
Frankly I had not exchanged any currency in Europe (except for unusually tiny amounts). I had assumed that Europe being a melting pot of so many tourists must have had fair exchange rates. Since DHL will be paying directly in dollars, I brought dollars with me to exchange it here. After the initial shock in Cologne, I thought it might be different in Bonn. But I was wrong. Apparently I have to have an account with most of the banks if I want to exchange currency. Where would you suggest I go? Reise Bank at the central station was the unequivocal answer. But my ever-critical mind told me that there must be a way. And so I found a lead at Sparkasse Bonn, a bank that had absolutely fabulous base fee and exchange rate – e.g. 1.4 as against 1.55 at Reise Bank. Alas, they don’t take $100 bills unless you have an account with them. I enquired to open a Giro account but left the thought when they needed residence proof and €3.5/month fee for the cheapest account. Just as I was about to give up, I saw a sign – Deutsche Bank. Well, that looks familiar! And voila, they have good exchange rate, accept $100 bills and even low base fee. Can’t believe no one of over 20 people that I asked would refer me to Deutsche Bank instead of other Sharks.

Obama Cricket

2009-05-12T20:32:00.012-04:00

You know cricket is getting popular when...

.... Obama takes cricket lessons from Lara!

The week after exams

2009-05-11T19:20:00.010-04:00

Finally, I am half-way through with MBA. This means I have time for activities I had been procrastinating for so long – nap, glancing thorough the last week’s journal, three business weeks, purging e-mails, designing finance club website from scratch, salvaging data from my defunct external HD, hitting gym/swimming pool, playing ping pong…

Not to say, I was neck-deep into salvaging the data from my hard disk, which had succumbed to my exploits some two years back. Windows, Dos, and Mac had already thrown in the towel. This left me eyeing on Linux. I found Knoppix that neatly installs and boots from USB. Once into Linux, it was a piece of cake to not only read, but also transfer data at a blazing speed to the other HD (had a little trouble writing to the other HD since Linux, by default, mounts FAT HD as readable only; on the same note, it is dangerous to write to NTFS through Linux). I am in love with Linux. If only there were no compatibility issues (I couldn’t get a driver for wireless card). Finally, I also managed to format the HD from scratch and voila – even the windows can read/write to the HD without any problem!

Redesigning the website took some time and I am still on it. Although programmers have made tremendous progress in developing tools that make web designing swifter and extremely flexible, it amazes me how little has been done to create a good editor. We are using Drupal platform, but the editors available are as awful as the ones I used to design my personal page some four years back. Anyway, here is the link.

It is worth mentioning that Georgetown University’s MBA is completely rebranding itself in the next session with new logo, new wordmark, absolutely fantastic new building, and new faculty. I am excited to be a part of this transition.

PS: Indian celebrities inadvertently shooting the bird at journalists trying to prove that they did cast their vote. Hilarious!

Internship update + US News ranking

2009-04-29T19:30:00.006-04:00

Got the happy news the other day from DHL; I will be interning with them in Bonn, Germany. Surprisingly, I didn't even apply to this position. I had applied to one of their projects in Bahrain, which apparently got canceled. Instead they offered me this position in Germany. Although I would have loved to go to Bahrain, the prospect of working on an interesting project at DHL's headquarters was simply irresistable. Plus, it has been almost three years since I have been to Germany and almost a year since I have spoken any German. Can't wait to be there and even get in touch with my old colleagues and friends. Also looking forward to some interesting roadtrips on weekends. Ironically, when I had job, money, and paid opportunities to travel, I wasn't so enthused to satisfy my wanderlust. Hopefully, things will be more memorable and exciting this time around.

On a side note, US news undid the horrible mistake that BW had committed last year. US news ranked Georgetown's MBA 19th, up from 22nd last year.

We are quite excited to be in the new building next mod.
here a glimpse:

More pics here: http://technology.msb.edu/album/new%20building/March%202009/

PS: the fourth mod has been quite interesting. My fav being Macroeconomics: an awesome and extremely interesting subject. Also had great corp fin reporting and Ethics/Leadership professors.

Internship...

2009-03-10T18:02:00.003-04:00

Wow! It has been almost two months since I last posted something. Seems I am having a hard time maintaining a blog-a-month status. This economy has really taken a toll in all aspects of my life. I was busy with exams, but more so with the internship search. Boy! I completed my undergrad in 2002 (just after dot-com bubble) but luckily that wasn’t as bad as it is right now. Not a single day passes by without charts/graphs pointing south in WSJ. Guess the economists have even stopped looking at the data before plotting the chart… the only question they discuss is perhaps how much slope should the graph have.

Anyway, the worst blow came about when I heard that the company of my choice finally decided to forgo the internship this year after me having in their final round. Ironically, the fact that the situation is grim all across the board somehow makes me forget the pain. I guess, like most of my colleagues I am getting used to accepting the situation.

By the way, I got some good grades (As) in the last mod. So much so that I scored the highest of all the students in one of the courses! If only grades mattered in b-school to get a job :(

the chill factor...

2009-01-15T23:07:00.003-05:00

Certainly not the chilliest moments of my life... nonetheless, worth mentioning... was worse this morning...

Film reviews...

2008-12-28T15:17:00.003-05:00

The second mod (or one sem) is finally over. The holiday season meant two-week break before the third mod starts. Naturally, for a movie buff like me it was a bliss.

Slumdog millionaire: Awesome movie. Some flaws, but all in all a very decent film to watch.
Rab ne bana di Jodi: DON'T DARE TO WATCH IT. One of the worst movies of SRK. I am not a critique of acting et al, but he seemed so bad....
A Wednesday: Awesome. Quite a break from the run-of-the-mill films we were forced for a little while
Ghajini: Bogus. Even if you do come under peer pressure to watch this crap, close your eyes and ear for the first half hour and eventually the last fifteen minutes as well. You will cry in disbelief.
House: Technically not a movie, but I managed to watch the entire five seasons of this 'series of the century'.
Dark Knight (repeat): Awesome. Got to know that it was Heath Ledger's last movie. He died at the age of 28. Scary.
Quantum of Solace (repeat): can live without this one.
Madagascar2 (repeat): Awesome

btw, happy new year.... don't know why everyone is excited when they know the economy and job prospect will most probably be worse than it was last year!

Remembrance

2008-12-05T20:07:00.002-05:00

To all who died in the Mumbai blasts. I am filled with rage; not only against those bloody perpetrators, but also our third class political and defense system that despite having prior info didn't bother to move their asses and save lives.

1. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6368013&page=1

2.

Few words about Mod2

2008-11-24T21:42:00.006-05:00

We are already mid way through Mod2 (each semester is divided into two mods; a sort of norm these days in all the B-schools). Some mid-terms are already over, some had only cases due and for some we are waiting for the final exams.

The courses this mod are:
1. Financial Markets: all about time-value, risk and return, CAPM, WACC... those sorts of stuff... also called Finc-I
2. Managerial Accounting: basically covering all the flaws presented by financial accounting. In essence, thinking beyond just the financial numbers.
3. Marketing: OK, but more excited to attend Prof. Homa's classes in Mod4
4. Strategy: subtle but interesting concepts... models that make analysis easier...
5. Management Communication: we are schlepping it from last mod. quite a BS - more so because I am already aware of most of the rules of effective communication/writing...

just another post

2008-11-23T11:51:00.004-05:00

I realized that I haven't posted anything for almost a month. So here are some of my thoughts.
Undoubtedly, we are all suffering from this financial crisis. In a way it shouldn't have surprised me. S&L crisis broke when I was born, dot com bubble burst when I completed my undergrad, and now once again when I am unemployed, the job prospects can't be any worse. Add to that the coveted BW got crazier and placed some of the most unknown universities above Georgetown. Can't believe we slid into second tier. But as they say, be wary of statistics. There is always some scope of picking selective data and skewing the results.

By the way, I got to represent Georgetown in the 13th international case competition, Tepper school of Business, PA last month. It was a good break from studies and a great experience. We couldn't make it to the finals but solaced ourselves with the fact that we were beaten by the champions ;)
That's it for today. Have a nice thanksgiving weekend ahead.

NY and aligarian spirit

2008-10-22T15:27:00.006-04:00

I am in NY, attending Wall Street Week. I know wall street hardly exists anymore but still wanted to see the collapse before it turns into oblivion. Last two days have been both exciting and frustrating. Meeting people and going into buildings that you will otherwise never get a chance to go in was exciting, whereas learning about the crisis and increased competition in financial sector was depressing. Therefore, for now I am shifting my focus off of finance to operations - something I can relate to better with my background.

Aligarian spirit: I had mentioned it zillion times but here is another proof of why I speak glowingly about AMU. A week ago after I realized that I had no place to stay in NY, I scrambled for options. Since hotel was too dear to me, I mailed one of my old alig acquaintances in NY through a common friend of ours and guess what... he not only offered me to stay at his place, he has been an amazing host... I mean you talk about NYers being rude, while he is one of the nicest and caring persons I have ever known. I thought people may be taking undue advantage of his nicety. But then I realized that he is quite successful in corporate America too! I guess it's his good deeds (... and Aligarian spirit) that is being rewarded.

My B'day party....

2008-10-04T22:31:00.002-04:00

had an awesome b'day party... and this time I made really AWESOME steaks..... boy! was that delicious.... damn, we had to cut it short coz we have financial accounting and stats to cover.....

financial market analysis

2008-09-25T16:01:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I got a chance to attend a short ppt + q/a session from four of our (Georgetown) professors. And boy, were they impressive. I thought I have become smart after duly flipping the wsj every morning, but gosh! they had some insights. I think they just proved my point - once again - that there is always a better and easy way to explain stuff. I would have loved to share the slides with the world but since it is copyright protected.... you see, Georgetown takes integrity and ethics very seriously.

excited for consulting + net impact day tomorrow.

NBMBA career fair

2008-09-24T16:54:00.002-04:00

no points for guessing... we are facing recession (whatever the hell wall st and main st might be saying). This means job prospect, esp. for finance sector is bleak. This means people who were kinda thinking of finance will stick to their alternate sectors thereby increasing competition elsewhere ;( ... To give a hint I attended the NBMBA conference in DC last week. As one colleague commented it was a swarm of black suited MBAs. Since this was practically my first visit to a career fair (and a first real attempt at job hunting), I was overwhelmed. For at least one hour I wondered if I am ready for my target companies (which, btw, still remains undecided) and start reciting my stupid pitch all the while the employers gave silly grin. But after a while and tons of motivation from my classmates and career management alike, I approached some of the companies. It felt stupid to go there and basically tell what everyone else was also saying. But I somehow managed to do that. Unfortunately, after a while I realized that I had no more resumes left with me (I had brought only 7-8) and so thought of calling the day... but before that I thought of having some fun. I chatted with several companies who I hardly knew and students from other schools and know their experience. It turns out that at some of the hot companies even second years are applying for summer internship. This was enough for me to stick with my background in operations.

All in all, I understood what career fair is all about. I also learned to have more than 20-30 resumes during fair. But most importantly, my fear of delivering pitch has faded.

To sum up, I had few grudges:
1. For a career switcher, it was a challenge trying to explain how your past experience fits their needs, when in fact there are a bunch of people with suitable skills... yes, I know the crap that you have to differentiate etc but the point is it is extremely difficult to explain that in two minutes... For me it was more about knowing their requirement and making connection (which I hardly did).
2. Some employers were really uninformed. Some of them were not sure if they hired international students or not and half were plain dumb in explaining what they were there for.
3. It feels embarrassing when they are not interested in you and they take your resume and toss it to trash once you are gone. For a stupid guy like me who had only few resumes in hand, it hurts!

BTW, did I tell you that you had several goodies to collect once you are finished with your career quest? My personal favorite - $10 debit card from Citi.

Life sucks...

2008-09-17T21:29:00.003-04:00

Q: How bad can first mod at Georgetown get?
A: Depends (fav. answer for an MBA)... but really it's when you think that your time will be wasted if you take a piss.

brief mba musing.. .until now

2008-09-05T16:40:00.002-04:00

Ok.. I have decided to shift this blog's theme from 'anything under the sun' to 'my days at Georgetown'. For the start, I will try to pen down my day-to-day (or at least weekly) happenings.

Anyway, coming to the point, here is what has happened since beginning July(from what I remember):
- Even long before official admission we were supposed to complete MBAmath.com assignments. It was cool and gave a glimpse of what was to be expected out of the coursework. Spent all in all almost 20 hours on this.
- Arrived Phily on Aug04; went to Edison, NJ for two days. For those who don't know anything about Indian community in the US, this place is like mini Gujrat.
- Came to DC, started furnishing the apartment etc.. of course, life was never more miserable than setting up a new home without a car or a cell phone (and worse of all, no income)....
- Completed opening orientation and mandatory residency BEFORE the official start of the class - Aug25. Was fun and TOO MUCH learning.
- Understood the ONLY reason to come to an MBA school - to get a job, rest is BS.
- Understood that getting a job in the US is a pain in the butt. You gotta make connections / networking / pitching / informationals .... gosh, I had never used these types of words in my previous life....
- Aug25: beginning of the classes - 9 classes; Mon-Thur of 1.5 hrs each... sounds easy, right. NO. Absolute NO.
Core classes are: Microeconomics (E-con), Statistics (Stats), Organizational Behavior (OB), Management communication, Financial Accounting.
- Today was yet another torturous day... had speaker panel from several big companies plus interaction with 2nd years who just completed their internship from these companies. wonder how they get it in the first place.... the worst part is that you have to be in business formal to attend these....

Ciao for now.

Georgetown

2008-08-05T14:01:00.003-04:00

Ok... a lot has happened in the last few days (will ruminate and write about the whole process later in detail)... for the time being it suffice to say that I left my job, went to meet my parents and most of my relatives (was an awesome feeling), and am back to join the MBA program of Georgetown university... very excited!!!

Mad driving

2008-06-23T21:51:00.002-04:00

World Clock

2008-06-22T15:53:00.001-04:00

Poodwaddle.com

Dracula and Bhoot

2008-06-18T21:19:00.012-04:00

Here is a post that will be best appreciated by Hindi speaking folks. Here goes the story:
I had an interview scheduled for the McCombs MBA program in Austin, Texas. The day before my interview/class visit, I was flipping through their brochure when I came across this photograph of a professor.

Noticing the two protruding molar teeth in the photograph, my friend exclaimed 'Dracula!'

We laughed while I continued flipping the pages. A moment later I found this photograph of a student named 'Bhoot Singh' ('Bhoot' means 'Ghost' in Hindi). I showed it to my friend and we laughed our hearts out.

Now comes the best part: the tryst of the apparitions - Dracula and Bhoot!
On the day of my interview cum class visit, I was amazed to find that I had been escorted to the class of Mr. Mahajan itself. But before I could take my seat, I couldn't believe my luck when I saw Mr. Singh sitting right next to me! I couldn't help but stifle my laugh all through the class.

It was quite a funny day. But jokes apart, Mr. Mahajan was quite a professor. Mr. Singh, on the other hand, had a M.S.Dhoni look from the side (with a cap, that is).

PS: M.S. Dhoni was my batchmate during school days. People say we even might have played cricket together (I don't remember a thing). Alas, he is still playing cricket, while I grew up!
PPS: Mr Mahajan/Mr Singh, if you ever see this blog please take it in a buoyant mood. It was just another funny moment in my life and you happened to be the source.

Traveler IQ

2008-06-14T18:48:00.013-04:00

Still a bad IQ. Gotta try harder. Try traveler IQ.

The Internet's Original Travel Blog.

Just like that

2008-06-05T20:33:00.005-04:00

This blog is dedicated to my mom and her amazing culinary skills. I love you mom.

PS: I will be joining Georgetown MBA program in two months. Gotta thank JB, VT, SZ, and HK for being so supportive in this decision. AS and AR deserve special mention. You guys rock.

Forrest Gump

2008-05-05T19:21:00.003-04:00

We went to NYC this weekend (yes, only after one year living a stone's throw away from it did I get to do so.) And what an amazing experience it was. Definitely worth while. One tip for those who are driving down from north: park and ride at Stamford, CT.

Anyway, in the evening among all the lights and razzmatazz we decided to have our dinner at Times Sq itself. Although I wanted to munch on the street side foods - Knish, Kebap, Gyro, etc - sometimes I do yield to friend's requests. Finally, we decided on Bubba Gump. And boy I had one of the best foods of my life! But there was more to it. Now that I knew the reason behind Bubba Gump, I couldn't resist watching the great film. Next day I watched the film and enjoyed every moment of it. I feel ashamed to have not seen this film all these years. Hope I don't have any more surprises in life like this. But then again, C'est la vie!!!!

ABCD..... Z

2008-05-04T11:24:00.003-04:00

I was surprised to learn that the popular ABCD (american born confused desi) has been aptly extended to include the complete alphabet... check out these two variations:
(1) "American Born Confused Desi, Emigrated From Gujarat, House in Jersey, Kids Learning Medicine, Now Owning Property, Quite Reasonable Salary, Two Uncles Visiting, White Xenophobia Yet Zestful"
(2) "American Born Confused Desi, Emigrated From Gujarat, Housed In Jersey, Keeping Lotsa Motels, Named Omkarnath Patel, Quickly Reached Success Through Underhanded Vicious Ways, Xenophobic Yet Zestful"

Apropos ABCD, I was in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas last week. There I met one of the nicest persons in my life - Hirendra Bhai. He was, as expected, part owner of the hotel I was residing in. Anyway he was extremely kind and helpful during the whole five days I was there. And yes, I had some very good Gujarati style food in the most typical environment you will expect of any middle class Gujarati family - sitting on the floor, eating with your hands while religious figurines ornament the walls. The rest of the family was flipping channels between a cricket match and a Saas-Bahoo saga. Awesome.

Elephant painting

2008-04-02T20:35:00.000-04:00

Films this weekend

2008-03-26T21:17:00.003-04:00

Watched 'College Road-Trip' and '10,000 BC' back-to-back this sunday. Not to mention, the latter was simply awesome.

PS: going to Texas for some fun time this weekend

Thought process

2008-03-16T17:55:00.001-04:00

some notes for my future self....

Dec 19, 07: Company’s Christmas party; won third prize in a quiz competition with only three participants…
Dec 30, 07: Visited Salt Lake City, UT. Resolved to learn to ski…
Dec 31, 07: Slept like a log while the world was enjoying the evening…
Feb xx, 08: Ajay realized that he has left his car keys in the Hertz rental car that he had already returned. We went to the store to find that the store is closed. Ajay called the emergency number only to be presented with some silly alternatives. We then tried to open the door using some of our spare keys but in vain. Finally, just for the heck of it, Ajay tried to open the door of the car and surprisingly it opened…
Feb xx, 08: Went to Mohegan Suns and Hartford in CT. Had one of the best Indian dinners at ‘Kashmir’ restaurant…
Mar xx, 08: Accepted the harsh truth that I am weird. Some examples:
- I can drink coffee/tea all day long except in the morning.
- My taste-buds are underdeveloped (an awesome steak is simply tasty; a terrible soup is just another not-so-good one).
- Inasmuch as I am an outgoing person when in a group, I am extremely lazy and lethargic with absolutely no drive to do anything when alone.
- I can’t smoke. I have tried my best to at least be able to smoke even a cigarette a week but I simply can’t. Although there is a cool factor associated with it, I think it’s not my cup of tea and thus won’t even bother trying it either. It will remain a mystery how one gets hooked to this, let alone starting it in the first place.
- I am hardly emotional, or that's what I think. I do care, empathize and sympathize, but I am more loyal to my brain than to my heart. To give and example (not something I should be proud of), I didn't shed a single drop of tear when my old grandma passed away in front of me. Although I felt bad, I knew it was imminent.
Mar xx, 08: I became a millionaire… in my dreams ;)
Apr 30, 08: contemplated on going back to India, citing lack of the type of social circle and close friends I wish.

To be continued…

ISB admit

2008-02-16T11:43:00.004-05:00

Somewhat unexpected, I received an admit from ISB the other day. Ironically, after much consideration I am not joining it :(

PS: ISB did schedule another interview after I had it messed up initially.

Misfortune: definition personified

2008-01-26T19:13:00.000-05:00

As if the myriad of dings was not enough, here is an example of my latest stupidity *&^%$#@
------------------------------
Dear **ME**,

Unfortunately our schedule in cycle-2 is very cramped. We will see what best we can do in this regard.

Regards,
V. Srinath
Manager - Admissions & Financial Aid
Indian School of Business

------------------------------
From: **ME** [mailto:**ME**@**ME**.com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:13 AM
To: Admissions
Subject: Re: ISB Interview Schedule

Dear Sir,

I deeply apologize for not turning up for the telephonic interview yesterday morning. Due to the time and/or date difference between India and USA, I called the admission's office today (24th January in USA; 25th in India) and much to my disappointment I realised that I was late by a day.

Although it was my fault, I would still request you to accommodate me to any other available interview slot. I would really appreciate that.

Thanks and regards,
**ME**
------------------------------
On Dec 19, 2007 1:16 AM, wrote:

Dear **ME**,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been short listed for an interview for admission to the Post Graduate Programme in Management at the ISB. We have scheduled your telephone interview and the schedule is outlined below:

As per India Time ---- Date 24/01/2008; Time 10:00 Hours
As per Your Present Location* ---- Date 23/01/2008; Time 10:30 PM

* While we have tried to ensure that the dates & times as per India & your current location match, some discrepancy might exist between these times. Please note that we follow the schedules as per India time . Therefore please calculate your local time accordingly.
In case the error in calculating your local time is significant, please write to us immediately so that the same can be rectified.

You need to call this number +91 40 23187176 at the scheduled time for your interview.

Regards,
I V Ranga Rao
Director - Admissions & Financial Aid
Indian School of Business

You gotta be kidding me.....

2007-12-06T20:55:00.000-05:00

Joke

2007-12-01T19:16:00.000-05:00

I read this piece of humor a little while back... found interesting to post here too...

"An Israeli and a Palestinian are watching a Western. In the movie, a cowboy is riding bareback on a particularly wild horse. The Israeli, being aggressive, says to the Palestinian, "I'll bet you 10 shekels he falls." The Palestinian, being impulsive, replies immediately, "I'll bet you he doesn't."
The cowboy falls, and the Palestinian forks over 10 shekels. The Israeli, feeling that famous Israeli guilt, refuses them. Then he admits, "I've seen this movie before."
The Palestinian replies, "So have I. But I thought he would learn from his mistake."

PS: got interview call from Yale the other day ;)

INSEAD update

2007-11-10T10:25:00.000-05:00

Dear xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx,

I have the pleasure of informing you that your application has been processed for the Class of July 2009, starting in September 2008, and I am happy to let you know that you have been pre-selected for interview.

I ask for your continued patience, while we organise your interview(s) in your country of residence. Once we select your Alumni, you will receive the contact details via email.

If you are not currently living at your mailing address mentioned on your profile, please tell us immediately, so that we can organise your interviews in the correct country/town.

In the meantime, I thank you for your understanding while waiting for our next communication.

Kind regards,
Carol

Rubik's cube: solved in 10.56 seconds

2007-10-22T20:05:00.000-04:00

PS: Insead, Tuck, Kellogg, and Stanford are submitted. Kellogg i'view this Thursday ;-)

Bose: Naam hi kaafi hai

2007-09-24T19:03:00.000-04:00

I can't help but share this stuff with you!! Your life is incomplete (as of now) if you haven't seet it yet.

Stanford… Rail Commute… World MBA Fair…

2007-09-21T21:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was in Boston to attend a lecture by Stanford's assistant dean of admission, Mr. Derrick Bolton. The two-hour informal event took place at the American Express auditorium in downtown Boston. During the lecture Mr Bolton informed that Stanford is the only university in the world with so many (read 6 or 7) faculties in one campus. I didn't believe that he made such an overt statement and that most people believed him!
I wanted to object him at that time but felt awkward to start an argument when, in fact, everyone was there to hear what Mr Bolton had to say about Stanford rather than some jerk lecturing on some supposedly better university in a developing country.

For the uninitiated, I am referring to the great AMU. This university has more faculties than Stanford can ever think of. It has a more prominent and diverse alum list than the total number of Stan Alumni. Even then, unfortunately, Stanford is STANFORD whereas people hardly know AMU! We all know the reasons for this but one reason that came to my mind yesterday is that unlike most educational institutes of the world (including Stanford) that are commercial institutes seeking the best students (and their money), AMU's ideology is/was simply.... different. It’s no big deal to make the best out of best; making the best out of the rest is a challenge. I won't go into further detail but I wonder if Stanford can churn an electronics engineer out of a run-of-the-mill nerd who shelled perhaps no more than 1200 dollars to cover all the cost incurred in those four years... Yes, ALL the cost. It’s not an out of the world example of a super intelligent dude receiving all types of financial aid, but rather my own most amazing four years at AMU.

Anyway, after a very enriching experience with Mr. Bolton and some Stanford alumni, I was in for a big surprise. As soon as I inserted my parking stub into the machine I was dumbstruck to see the number flashing on the screen - $36 - for a little over two hours. I thought about the lessons about being frugal even before entering the school and here I am flunking the test before it started. But I guess I had no choice. I paid the fee (and a two dollar tip for that special valet parking) and thought of forgoing today’s 'World MBA Fair.' But then my colleague came to the rescue and advised to try the train service to Boston. I thought about that and now here I am, writing this blog using my PDA in this $14.5 round-trip train journey.

World MBA Fair.

I was surprised to see several universities from Cairo to Malaysia at the fair but none from India. I remembered Mr. Bolton alluding to IIM(B) at least thrice during his lecture and yet I see no campaign for IIM. Hmm… probably the dudes back home seem to be overwhelmed by the humungous number of applications from every Tom, Dick, and Harry of Indian engineering colleges and don’t want to entertain anyone else.

Anyway, coming to the point, I attended, albeit for a short period of time, a short class by one of the finance professors of Tuck, Prof. Kent L. Womack. And what a class it was – mind-boggling!! I must say I was a little intimidated when one guy gave the complete gist of the happenings in the financial market including their implications in response to Prof’s question. He must have been one of those oddballs cramming WSJ every single day. Thankfully he doesn’t reflect the image of a typical business student – or at least that’s what I think. Meanwhile though, I am happy I didn’t get a ticket for parking at a tow-away zone. Smile.

Dilbert Art of Management

2007-09-15T13:10:00.000-04:00

Check out these Dilbert's prophesies. I wonder if that's what MBA all about!

I think, therefore I am…..

2007-07-21T08:23:00.000-04:00

Every night I decide on a topic to scribble on this blogspot and every time the needs of my temporal existence take the better of me. The subjects that I have zeroed in until now have been as weird as enumerating my embarrassments (which by the way, will itself top the list) to reviewing 'live free or die hard' to as bland a thought as introspecting myself. Inasmuch as I contemplated to write down my sweet childhood and college-days memories and anecdotes, I have thought of starting a thread dedicated solely to my indolent yet motivated attempt to get into the school of my choice. But then I realize that I am not the best blogger in the world (damn, I lost my chance for that coveted place!!!) and hence my blogsphere maintains a status quo for a long time.
Anyway, today is one of those days when I get bit by the blogging bug. However the purpose of today’s blog, as is apparent from my prolixity until now, is simple: to write – any darn thing to at least maintain a post-a-month status. Despite the fact that I always wished to pen down something interesting, I wonder – as I write – at the bulk of worthless ideas crystallizing in my mind. For the start though, as the deadlines for my applications are nearing, my involvement in essay drafting is taking a back seat. Actually it’s not that my interest is dwindling, but the long waiting time before matriculation that is making me restless. I can’t wait to graduate from, let alone enroll in, one of my dream schools – Stanford, Michigan, Insead, Kellogg, and Duke (in that order). In fact, instead of planning for my neo-student reincarnation, I am loving my current job more than ever; part in response to completing my first five years job experience this June and part because unlike my last job, here I DO something and SEE things happen – a wysiwyg paradigm in manufacturing business!!!
And yes, ironically the more I miss my friends and family back home; I am awed by the ease and abundance in this ‘land of opportunity’ called USA.

Adios amigos!
PS: GMAT and MBA prep rock. I feel the difference.

Did you know: The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British ‘Pound Sterling’ comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation. Same goes for the Italian ‘lira’ which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius).

Quiz

2007-06-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

730: 49/41
not pleased with 49 though

DL

2007-05-20T16:11:00.001-04:00

Last week I went to the DMV (Dept. of motor vehicles) for a driving license. After preliminary procedures they asked me to wait for the written test. I must say I started to have butterfly in my belly at that time because this was basically my first tryst with a US Govt. department (except of course their revered immigration and customs aka TSA). Anyway, I tried to mug up as many facts as possible from the small rules booklet. Then the moment came. I was escorted to a small cubicle by a stout invigilator. He handed over the question paper (called ‘exam’ in the US) and believe me, it was a damp squib. I think pathetic would be an understatement, but when I saw two Hispanics flunking that test I thought otherwise. Anyway the surprise came after I cleared the written test. I was asked to appear for a driving test on 27th August!! Almost three months waiting time. Crazy, isn’t it? But who cares? I have my Indian driving license to my rescue too, which by the way, I bought (literally) for maybe 250 bucks (ca. $5) way back in 2002 :-)

April Fool

2007-04-01T10:38:00.000-04:00

Today morning I was musing over this 'April fool' thing. No, I am not going into its history or origin, but what could possibly be the best prank played this day? And I didn'd have to wait long; google didn't let me down. Although may not be the best but still good enough to have fooled over few million people around the world.
Now, in case they remove the pages tomorrow, here are the screenshots to give you the glimpse. Njoy

First Class, Farewell, US……

2007-03-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

I reckon this post will be my most cherished one. This is because in the last couple of weeks certain events took place that, even if slightly, will certainly change the course of my life. And not surprisingly, fun and enjoyment with a slight pinch of fate made these events even more memorable.
The fun started (rather continued…. even more wildly) when subsequent to much deliberation I was all set to go to the US after my company decided to get rid of me transferring to their sister company over there. Actually I am not the one going gung-ho about moving there lock, stock and barrel (unlike many weirdo sapiens from NW to W region of my country) but the prospect of making few extra bucks took the better of me. My merriment got crazier by the day until I thought it’s time to get serious for the big move. I quickly packed my bags and headed off to my parents home to bid them good bye. A week later on my way back I was standing at the platform searching for my name in the reservation list but in vain. The TTE then told me that I have been upgraded to First Class. I was astonished and happy at the same time but thanked Laloo from the bottom of my heart for giving me this maiden first class experience (no pun intended!!).
After my return to the office, I had only a little over a day to run the errands which means only one thing when I am concerned and time is at stake – It won’t get done. But somehow I managed it to some extent. Anyhow, before I headed off to the states (it’s somehow cooler than to say “USA”!!!!!), my colleagues did arrange a small but truly heartfelt farewell ceremony.
The next morning at wee hours, I boarded the flight to Boston and I was all set to start a new chapter in my life.
By the way, Blogger has been a real pain in the neck of late. Probably their server is overloaded.

Laptop and Refrigerator

2007-02-05T01:37:00.000-05:00

Indians, they say, are capable of making worst out of the best and also best out of the worst.

My Laptop is behaving erratically the last few days. Specifically, it heats up very quickly courtesy its defective CPU fan. Now in order to move my humungous data on to the new promised laptop using an external disk without heating up the thing was a big problem. The solution: I put it inside the refrigerator and that’s it. I was able to not only copy my stuff but also play some games albeit atop a small dilapidated stool with the refrigerator door open (would be embarrassing to post a pic with my fullview bum).

It was certainly my second coolest (no pun intended) act after my engineering project fiasco, of which only few of my friends have some idea.

God help me!!

2007-01-18T02:22:00.000-05:00

These days I have become a spoilt child – well…. once more. With more than a fair share of leisure activities, I wonder if anything went productive the last few weeks. Throwing darts seems to be the new bug to have hit me recently. Whenever we get a chance we keep slaughtering the door and the dart board hung on the door peg (mostly in that order). The fun part is that no game ever starts or ends without somebody shouting or yelling at someone else. Actually it’s the dart board to blame. It’s not a standard one (nor the electronic one) with wire mesh as demarcation line, which basically means your dart will land on either or none of the sectors but never on the “no man’s land”. In our case, we have to average out the points if we all agree to do so. Quite a fun, that is. It goes without saying that tea is the only thing that keeps us going…. er….. darting!!

Now when I am not darting, I watch movies like nobody’s business. I must have watched over a dozen of them in the last few days. I don’t know when will I be normal again. God, please help me!!!!!

Lages…. Curitiba…. Sao Paolo…. Johannesburg…. Bombay….

2006-12-27T06:02:00.000-05:00

It’s almost one month here in Brazil and hence time to go back home. I bid goodbye to Lages, unfortunately at 5:00 in the morning, for I had my flight to Sao Paolo at 11:45 from Curitiba – almost five hours drive from Lages. Although, I had only a glimpse of Curitiba while traveling but it seemed to be somewhat more urban and bigger than Lages. Anyway, I boarded the plane headed for SaoPaolo, albeit one hour late. After landing at SaoPaolo I went to IBIS Hotel, Guarulhos and got myself a room for one night. Since I was extremely tired (I wonder if I could ever make it even near to the ‘early riser’ clique), I immediately hit the sack. I woke up in the evening and went for a stroll. Next morning after having breakfast I again went to the local central market nearby. It was full with people but the sun’s wrath was too much for me to bear and I returned to the hotel. At around 4:30 I was back at the airport for my next leg of journey to Bombay via Johannesburg.

The flight from SaoPaolo to Johannesburg was almost eight and half hours long. Since I was not so sleepy, I watched two movies – ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Beat the Drum’. The former was neither particularly humorous nor interesting. It was actually the latter that caught my attention. This film has received 27 film festival awards and paeans from critics and audience around the world alike. The film is based on a small boy named Musa, who is a Zulu boy in a small village of South Africa. All his relatives sans his grandmother and some cousins have died of Aids, which unfortunately, is thought to be some ancestral curse by the villagers and so entails some sacrifice on Musa’s grandmother. Musa, unable to bear the sacrifice of his favorite cow, went to Johannesburg to work and find his uncle. The journey and life in Johannesburg were very difficult for this young boy and at times even deadly. But his indomitable spirit never wavered and he came back home with truth and wisdom his fellow villagers back home were unknown of. The story then goes on depicting the life in the streets of Johannesburg – far from the surging economy inside the closed doors of skyscrapers and the spread of AIDS. A wonderful film with a wonderful ending just leaves you contemplating on several issues at the same time.

After I was finished with the film I tried to catch some forty winks. The fully-flat bed from South African Airlines (SAA) and their fluffy blankets and pillow were the perfect paraphernalia for that. Unfortunately, I thought the beds were too big for a short and thin person like me. Moreover, score of vacant seats left me wonder as to why should one suffer in cramped economy class seats when in that very plane you have fully-flat beds with large leg space not used at all? Couldn’t airlines come up with a better idea of boarding the travelers giving priority to passenger’s convenience? Why couldn’t they simply let – even by a draw of lot – to move some maybe elderly passengers or women to the vacant business class seats just for sleeping? I don’t think people will even mind paying some small amount for this ‘upgrade’.

The flight landed in Johannesburg almost in time. After landing I proceeded towards the transit area but right at the entrance one little black fellow with safety vest came to me and asked for my boarding card. After giving it a cursory look he asked me to follow him. Since he seemed very much either an SAA employee or an airport staff, I followed him. He went past the queues at the security/frisking zone and asked me to go through. He gave a furtive glance at the security personnel and let me put my bag without taking out the laptop. Quickly he took my laptop and asked me to follow again. I was surprised at the gesture. I was sure he was doing this because he saw the ‘Business Class’ tag on my boarding card. No, I was wrong. No sooner we left the security area I asked him to take me to the SAA lounge. He asked if I was flying economy or business. Wait a minute….. what was then this all about and what did you look at my barding card. He finally uttered – “Sir, mind you. I am not helping you for nothing” stressing on the latter part of the statement – clearly indicating his motive!!!! I said well I didn’t ask for your help. Furthermore I have all the time in the earth for my next flight to help myself pretty easily. He understood my intention too and quickly gave me my bag and left looking for the next soft target. I then thought of the film I saw and tried to figure out the purpose of his move and how he had his connection with the security personnel et al. Correct me if I am wrong but I think no matter how much SA has developed over the years, the corruption and fraud still looms large in this country – from streets to the airport.

Anyway, I forgot the incident and headed to the SAA lounge and I must say I was impressed. It's not very congested like Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt or Munich nor is it short of… well.. basic facilities like Varig lounge in SaoPaolo. There was even a sports area for those sport freaks. There were also cricket bats hung on the wall with signature of team members from almost all the cricketing nations of the world. Internet, apparently, is not that easy to get access though.

After being in the lounge for some two hours I went to complete my last leg of the journey till Bombay. The flight to Bombay was full. So much so that even some overbooked passengers – with their – baggage were off boarded. This chaos went on for one hour after which the plane took off for another eight hours of long yet comfortable journey……….

Something about Brazil.

2006-12-10T12:01:00.000-05:00

It has been over two weeks here in Brazil but I must admit I haven’t really seen the ‘authentic’ Brazil. By authentic I mean the one with music and dance and drinking and fun – all night long. This is in partly because I am in Lages in the state of Santa Catarina where the culture is more European than Latin and partly because I am in the south of Brazil and that ‘authenticity’ I am talking about is basically a culture prevalent in the northern areas. In fact most of them admitted that they even have their own version of Samba somewhat different from what we normally know of. The contrast lies not only in these terms but also in the tone of their skin color and other such traits. The people in the south of Brazil, like most of the people in Chile or Argentina, are somewhat whiter in complexion with brunette to blonde hairs; whereas in the north they are somewhat darker in complexion just shy of being ‘Mexican Indians’. Moreover, the south of Brazil is cleaner than the north.

In spite of not being able to see a lot, I was able to get some feel of it. The Brazilians are very patriotic. They are really proud to be Brazilians and one can see the Brazilian flags almost everywhere – on T-shirts, footballs, buildings, tattoos, etc. They are even so more religious; so much so that I have seen more people saying graces before and after their meal than anywhere else in the world. They visit churches with religious fervor as well. They are also very friendly and play a good host.

Yet there is something that struck me quite surprisingly. Brazilians share their drinks more often than their meals with each other without any problems. Even while drinking they tend to take one sip each and then pass on the glass to the next one. They also do the same with the typical pot with herbs or fruits on the top and tea on the bottom that you can drink using a straw/pipe (Probably called Cuia e Bomba or Chimarão - see the photo). In fact once we went to a local kiosk to buy something and we saw that the shopkeeper was having tea from this pot when suddenly our client took the pot without even asking the shopkeeper and took a sip from it and even asked me to taste it – from that same pipe which everyone uses!!.

However, I had really some good and unique experience as far as meals are concerned. Our hotel offers buffet on Sundays. At first glance it will look like any other buffet but it’s not really so. Actually the guests will take whatever they wish and then their plates will be weighed and accordingly they have to pay – price for how much (in terms of weight) you eat rather than what exactly you eat. On the same note, last week I had a chance to visit a local pizzeria – Don Peperoni. This was so unique that even Italians might not have thought of being so. It’s a business strategy many people long for to conceive in their minds yet its well in place and working here in Lages. To start with, it's really a pizzeria and you get to eat pizzas. But how would you rate a pizzeria if you get to eat many types of pizzas instead of gobbling only one and that too when they are always warm? It’s just like that here. No longer than you took your seat, you will be asked to order a drink and the waiter will put a chip with red, yellow, and green faces to point to green indicative of eat-whatever-you-wish. The waiters will then come and go with different pizzas in the pan they are holding and if you wish they will give you one sector out of it. Perfectly made warm pizzas of you choice at your disposal without even waiting a minute after your arrival!!! After you are done with the main course you can turn the chip to point to ‘yellow’, which means dessert time. But wait. More surprises. They have sweet warm pizzas with toppings ranging from chocolate to fruits to dry fruits…….. the list keeps on going until you drop dead as you relish each bite of those pizzas. Oh just thinking of it is enough to stimulate my appetite. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera at that time but I will certainly take some snaps next time around.

A long post…. About many things I will always remember.

2006-11-26T17:13:00.001-05:00

This post has actually been written in series while I completed my journey until…. well read on to know more……

Part1:
Oh it’s over…. Or it seems so. After those innumerable hassles and problems, I can’t help but wonder as to what’s left and for how long? Even being quite prudent and foresighted as far as travel is concerned, I haven’t been able to forestall the misadventures following me the last few days. As soon as I thought of everything to be piccobello, I was proved wrong with circumstances and reasons I seemed to have no control over.

It all started just after my vacation was over. Instead of letting me travel to Yemen, for which I had the visa and ticket, my boss asked me to go to Brazil. Although I haven’t been to both these countries, for some pretty obvious reasons I was excited to go to Brazil. Now the first hurdle as always was procuring a visa, which I had been told, is indeed a pain-in-the-neck as far as Brazil is concerned. But since I had to get one, I went to the embassy with all the requisite documents only to find that the embassy was closed because it was somehow a holiday in Brazil. This fact made me realize that if your expectations from your dream job are lot of holidays and less work, try your hand at the embassy of one of the third world countries – you enjoy holidays of both the countries. Nevertheless, next day I managed to submit my application without any problem. I was told that I can check the status (whatever that means) the next day, a Friday. Next day they told that they didn’t even have a cursory look at my application. That leaves me to check the status on Monday (Sat and sun were obviously closed). On Monday they told that on Tuesday I will either get a visa or not, to which I asked that guy what then he meant with ‘checking the status’ when my knowledge of visa’s status is the same as yesterday – Zilch. He didn’t respond. At this juncture I did what I could have at most done – swore while coming out of the building. On Tuesday – already my fifth trip to the embassy as 8, Aurangzeb Road – my efforts finally bore the fruit and I got the visa. Happily I informed my company to issue a ticket to Sao Paolo. Immediately I got a perfect itinerary if seen from a European perspective. But we Indians should read between the lines. My itinerary was Delhi-Frankfurt-Munich-SaoPaolo. For any layman it would look flawless and it indeed is, only if you have a valid Schengen/German visa because both Frankfurt and Munich are in Germany. I asked them to reissue the ticket which they obliged by issuing another ticket with Air France as: Delhi-Paris-SaoPaolo. I felt relieved and happy too for its only once in a while that I get to travel Business Class.

On my departure day, I arrived at the airport barely an hour before the departure (I was basking in having a business class ticket). Nothing wrong but I was in for the surprise of a lifetime. They told me that I need a transit visa of France or a valid USA/Canada/UK visa if I want to travel through Paris (I fail to understand to this very day why and how a valid USA/Canada/UK visa will let me transit a Schengen country with the end destination in South America!!!) I was shocked because even after telling them that my onward flight is from the same building and same terminal in Paris, they didn’t yield their position. They offered to try boarding me on another airline, which I thought was also not a bad idea. But I think it was a day of surprises. Both British Airways and Lufthansa wanted transit visa of their respective countries. I can’t say about the former but Lufthansa…. Hey you need not tell me…. I have traveled twice to Chile via Frankfurt and Sao Paolo in the last ten months….. Sir you must have had valid US or UK visa… nope…. Well we are sorry sir; we can’t issue a boarding card to you…. Is this a new rule because else I have committed a crime of transiting through a country without a transit visa when, in fact, I should have had one…..? Sir we can’t say much about that but this rule has always been in place!!!!!! I was dumbfounded. After cursing and yelling for quite some time I had to finally return back home ruminating over the possible course of action left for me: getting a transit visa of France OR of Germany OR try altogether another itinerary. The following morning after catching some forty winks, I checked the internet for the first two possibilities and guess what; I need at least two to three working days to procure them. What $%$#%, I wonder what benefit is it for anyone except that we have to shell some extra bucks to get them and without that life could become hell if you are not aware of it. Now that left me trying the third possibility. After numerous attempts, I finally got something: Delhi-Bombay-Johannesburg-SaoPaolo. But checking the internet revealed that I need transit visa of South Africa too. I don’t know if it was my sixth sense or my clairvoyance that I called my travel agent and the South African embassy to check it. They confirmed that transit visa has been scrapped for Indians from July2006 but the website has not been updated hitherto. Seeing light at the end of the tunnel (it would later turn out to be that of an incoming train – albeit for a split second), I asked my company to issue the ticket. Getting the ticket I took a flight to Mumbai, which instead of landing at 2000 hours, was an hour late. By the time I reached the international terminal it was already 2200 hours: still enough time for my onward flights. As soon as I reached the South African airlines (SAA) with my e-tix (PTA), the bald guy rebuffed me saying that they do not accept e-ticket. I said “not again”. Although I was furious, I maintained my cool and approached his senior and explained everything. He went away only to come back almost half an hour later saying that they are not finding my reservation on the second leg of my journey and that the ticket is in Spanish which he can’t read and therefore I have to go back. I said that firstly it’s not Spanish but German. Secondly, why did it take him so long to understand that it’s in a language other than what he can ever comprehend and lastly, what difference does it make if it’s Spanish or German as far as it’s printed in standard format. I even offered to help him with translation etc but without hearing my arguments, he again went into oblivion only to come back after another half-hour and half-heartedly said that they are issuing me the paper ticket but can give boarding card for the first leg of my journey only. The other boarding card will be issued in Johannesburg. I said its fine with me and went away cursing South African airlines this time around. Thankfully I had only one piece of hand-baggage otherwise there would have been another chaos. Mumbai police don’t allow more than one hand baggage no matter what the travel class is.
Now I am sitting at the departure gate waiting to embark without any more surprises. And yes, you know what, I can publish this post right now too because our Mumbai airport is now wi-fi enabled but unfortunately one has to shell 50 bucks for half an hour, which is somewhat too dear to me!!!!

Part2:
True to what I wished at the Mumbai airport, my journey until Sao Paolo (I am again sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Florianopolis to depart at exactly four hours from now) was smooth. Although the flight from Mumbai was almost an hour late, it didn’t make any difference to me. I got all the formalities – boarding pass etc – and boarded the SaoPaolo bound flight.

The in-flight service of South African airlines, I must say, was pretty good. In contrast to the appalling demeanor of the officials at Mumbai, their in-flight service and punctuality was commendable. The plane landed exactly at the scheduled arrival time and it didn’t take much time to get my baggage. Immediately I went through the customs on my way to the domestic terminal. At this juncture I digress a bit to tell you that I was told that the custom officials are a ruthless lot in Brazil, which I, incidentally failed to comprehend. They were actually normal custom people I am aware of who do there duty sincerely without causing problems for no reason at all (I am not talking of Indian, USA, or Saudi custom officials).

Part3:
My flight from SaoPaolo was one hour late for the simple reason that there was a high demand-supply gap at the check-in – too many people to be catered to through very few counters. The GOL officials were also quite uninterested in expediting the matter. Nonetheless I was happy to have finally made it to Florianopolis. I then took a taxi to my hotel. The Taxi driver, much to my astonishment, charged exactly 34 Reals – the amount I was told at the airport to be appropriate – and nothing more. After checking-in I quickly went to bed for next morning at 8O’Clock I was to be picked up by our client.

Next day after having a wholesome and quite satisfying breakfast, I got onto my client’s car and proceeded towards Lages – westward of Florianopolis. After about 4 hours I finally made it to my destination.

Now when I look back, it amuses me that I have completed such a long journey. Let’s calculate the total time I was ‘on the move’ to reach Florianopolis from Delhi (Since I went to Lages the next morning so I will leave that out from this calculation): I left my house at 1630 hours and I was in Florianopolis hotel at 2300 hours. Taking time difference of around 8,5 hours (I am not sure), it comes to approx. 39 hours!!!!!!! Still somewhat less than I had while traveling to Chile – not once but twice. Beat it!!!

PS: it’s for me to be reminded of two things while traveling
1. Never ever put your important stuff – Passport etc – in the seat pocket in front of you. This is because once I had forgotten my onward ticket and boarding card while traveling to Italy even though I never thought I will forget to remove it while disembarking
2. Always keep an eye on your personal belongings while security check is being carried out. It so happened in this very trip that one girl in front of me tried to sneak my mobile phone while I was getting frisked by the security personnel. In fact she was so quick that I hardly noticed it. After rebuking she pretended to be doing so inadvertently, which I am certainly not buying.

Back to work

2006-11-15T00:52:00.000-05:00

It has been quite some time since my last post and quite naturally a lot has happened during this period. Just to give an idea it was all about marriages. Altogether my own brother, one first cousin and two second cousin indemnified their lives with their better halves for good. I won’t be bothering to give a detailed account of the incidents that changed their lives for the simple reason that I am too lazy to pen down things most people are quite aware of. It, therefore, suffices to say that everything went smoothly and as planned. It’s just that my vacation was – as always – too short!!

pub - honda accord domino

2006-10-19T06:52:00.000-04:00


Yes, I know this is an age-old ad but as the maxim goes: old is gold, I simply find it awesome.

Paagal Nikhil Parekh

2006-10-17T02:56:00.000-04:00

It’d been quite a while since I wrote something. Actually I was ruminating as to what’s the limit of craziness and incidentally I found it. His name is Nikhil Parekh whom I detest as well as respect for certain reasons. He claims to be posting over 60 messages EACH day for the last one month and has already reached a mark or 13lac words. To put things into perspective, he has a “Limca book of Records” record to his name apart from numerous other achievements as claimed in his website. Check his blog and website and decide for yourself!!

Back from Morocco.

2006-10-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

St. Augustine once said “The World is a book and those who do not travel read only a page“. True to his words and even treading beyond, I wonder if I will ever get bored or even ‘get used to’ getting to know different culture, people, cuisine, traditions etc. It’s altogether an ineffable experience; you have to be there and live with the people to understand. The more you travel, the more it intrigues. Although this was my second trip to morocco and naturally I didn’t expect many surprises, I was wrong; for not only did my outlook broaden and opinion change (more about the people than of the place per se), I was convinced that there is always something about which you don’t know. Unfortunately, you seldom know what you don’t know.

Well leaving the philosophy behind and coming to the point, I got to know, interalia, something very peculiar of morocco - Moroccan cuisine. In particular the Tagine. The name might not interest you much, but the dish will certainly leave you longing for more. It’s chicken/lamb/beef stew made with olives, lime, and spices. It’s somewhat hot but simply irresistible and awesome. Interestingly, it’s not the dish that was traditionally called Tagine, but the pot (somewhat similar to a tureen) itself in which it’s served. Another such delicious typical Moroccan dish is Couscous about which I have already wrote a lot in my previous posts of May2006. All in all, I think Moroccan dish resembles typical Lucknowi style non-vegetarian cuisine – Yummy!!

In Tangier..

2006-09-26T07:31:00.000-04:00

Tangier, also called Tanger in local and other languages of the world lies in the northern most part of Morocco. Incidentally, I can see Spain from my hotel room across the Strait of Gibraltar too. Although somewhat inappropriate of him, my German colleague once lamented that while only a few miles apart, there is civilization on one side only.
Anyway, my brief stay here in Tangier has come to an end and now I am flying back to Casablanca. While here I got to know a little history of morocco. Actually while driving through the city I saw an old ‘Plaza de Toros’ – a bullring – which intrigued me because I thought of morocco being always under the French rule. Mohammed, driving the car, sensed my uneasiness and explained that many years back the northern part of morocco was under the Spanish rule and the southern part under the French. He went further without hesitating to mention that later on Moroccans ruled over a part of Spain as well!!! Morocco, by the way, is the only African country that is not currently a member of the African Union.

Stop-Over at Casablanca.

2006-09-25T12:56:00.000-04:00

I am going to Tangier, some 300 Kms northwards of Casablanca. Nothing wrong except that there is no way to get a good flight connection to Tangier. You have to either take a long stop-over at Casablanca or take a really weird route which will practically take the same time more or less. Thinking the former to be the most sensible choice, I flew to Casablanca and now here I am at the airport scribbling this blog and waiting desperately for the next flight. Actually time seems to have stopped. For every half hour, the minute hand moves only ten minutes forward. This is primarily because I have nothing better to do. In other words, the airport is not very well equipped with amenities (I fail to find any power outlet to charge my laptop) to keep me busy. I am also not entitled to enter any of the lounges at present to even catch some winks. I haven’t freshened myself, I haven't shaved, and am feeling drowsy. Life couldn’t be worse. I hope this wait will soon be over and without any more surprises I can check into my hotel.

KING OF BILLARDS

2006-09-24T08:22:00.000-04:00


Watch the greatest mind-boggling billiard tricks of all times... Don't ever try these at home or anywhere else - You will never succeed!!

Morocco relived….

2006-09-21T06:31:00.000-04:00

Sometimes life plays game with you and you seem to be oblivious to this fact until it’s too late. Something similar happened with me about a month back when I was told that I might have to go to morocco once more. At that time I brushed this idea away just because I didn’t want to experience the horrendous Moroccan embassy officials once again (I wrote about that experience in my previous posts). Anyway, I was at ease till last week when I was asked (read ordered) to go to morocco for a couple of weeks. Infuriated I went to the Moroccan embassy and the same shit followed – this document is missing, that document is worthless / not perfect. After umpteen hours of paper work, telephonic talks, and visits to embassy I managed to get the visa and so tomorrow I will leave for morocco. Anyway, like last time I hope to have a nice trip this time too….

Auf wiedersehen Deutschland!!

2006-09-15T03:51:00.000-04:00

The time has come and I am heading back home. After a full 90 days stay the life has come full circles. I am going back to where I was with my friends and colleagues sans the burning heat I experienced before coming here. Whilst still in the airport, I can very well smell the Paranthas – Sufi style (for those who have been to Aligarh), the irresistible Biryani and other ineffable delicacies. I can also feel the fun with my friends in home, theatres etc. Its really a nice feeling to be back home.
Anyway, since this was supposed to be the last post from Germany, I wished to write something interesting. But apparently I did not have anything worth sharing until today morning at the airport that left me bewildered. I saw a big queue at the only open check-in counter with around 25 people. Within a minute the Lufthansa officials opened the adjacent counter as well. Defying my understanding of human conduct, nobody moved. Instead, that very queue kept moving forward quickly while both the counters served the passengers. Within fifteen minutes not only were all the passengers taken care of, nobody had any beef about being served late while others had their share of pie quite early in the game – a perfect FIFO paradigm seldom seen in real life.

The end of KLM trauma…

2006-09-14T07:25:00.000-04:00

As soon as I finished publishing my last post, I had a terrible feeling of “what if my baggage doesn’t arrive at all? OR what if it arrives after I have left Germany?”. I barely managed to get few hours of sleep that night after not getting any response from the KLM authorities while I tried to call them till 11 pm. Next morning at around 11 am I was informed that my baggage has arrived. I felt relieved. I then intended to ask for some compensation but the very thought of nagging KLM people abated my spirits. I will, however, try to get something from my travel insurance. Till then……

Bad experience with KLM

2006-09-10T11:38:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I came back from Spain, quite happy to have finally made it so far and now only three more days before returning back home. But I was in for a surprise at the airport because my baggage didn’t come along with the plane and hence I had to do without my stuff for at least a day. After reporting at the “Lost and Found” counter they promised me of having my stuff back the next morning. They also handed me their “basic overnight kit” as a goodwill gesture – something far from supporting my basic needs (I could use only their cheap toothbrush and could probably put their toiletry bag into some use). Anyway, the story isn’t over yet. Although two planes have already landed from Amsterdam, I haven’t received my baggage hitherto. After complaining them I received the usual blah blah and an assurance of getting my luggage tomorrow morning. I am hoping to get some positive news by then otherwise I would have to try something else.

Homesick

2006-08-27T09:58:00.000-04:00

I am getting homesick as my return date is nearing by. I don’t feel like going anywhere on weekends anymore. Probably it’s becoming monotonous. I think I need a break.
Anyway, as expected, we decided to stay in the hotel itself during the weekend and watch movies. Getting short of movie supplies, we watched the old movies – once again: Madagascar, Da Vinci Code, Jodi No.1, and Gangster. I have some 30GB of Simpson’s in my hard-disk too that will definitely be enough to ward off my boredom for quite some time.

The Weeks That Were: something about everything

2006-08-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

The last two weeks were the ones with a range of happenings. I will go through them quite briefly and chronologically. On Friday we were invited by a German Family to their after-wedding party. Since it was the first time I was to this sort of party, I was quite excited. Anyway, it didn’t take long when we were finished with the party and came back to check out the local fest. Unfortunately the light drizzle downed my spirit and we went back to our hotel. On Saturday with Kashif (my colleague) we went to a big mall and eventually to a small but interesting leisure park – Aqua Magica. Later in the evening we went to pick up Ashish (another colleague) from the airport. On the way back to our hotel, Ashish told that in New Delhi he had to check-in his Laptop because in the wake of terror alert in London, Lufthansa officials didn’t allow him to carry any hand-baggage into the aircraft and therefore he was continuously foreboding something bad. It didn’t take long and soon after opening the case we saw that the laptop screen was damaged. Incidentally, we were at least able to recover his data.
On Sunday we went to a nearby town, Borgloh, to watch the mountain car racing after one of my colleagues advised me to experience this. Let me say at the very onset that this was the worst advice anybody ever gave me (except of course few nice advices from Owais to watch certain movies in Aligarh!!). At first we had to park our car in the middle of nowhere and then walk few miles to catch the event but only after doling out 12 euros as entry fee. As if this was not enough, there was nothing to watch. There were some cars backfiring like Indian trucks uphill an acclivity and waiting for their turn to give some acceleration and the rest were already gone – with the noise and smoke billowing out of them. We returned within half an hour cursing our fate.
Monday morning I took a flight to Barcelona via Palma de Mallorca for a one week official visit. I was very excited because I was never before in Spain. Although it was an official visit, I had already made up my mind to sight-see Barcelona and its surroundings. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to take time off my schedule because for some reasons I couldn’t start my work before Wednesday morning and therefore I had more than one whole day to see Barcelona – paid officially!!! What else to ask for. I quickly rented a car – Citroen C4 – and proceeded to the city centre. Unfortunately with all the traffic I wasn’t able to see much on Monday. Moreover I had to search my hotel too. Anyway next morning after having a wholesome breakfast, I went to Barcelona. This magnificent and big city has many interesting things to offer. Although one day is perhaps too short to see all that is worth seeing, I tried to take a glimpse of the major of them viz. - Placa de les Glories Catalanes, Olympic and Baseball stadium, Mont Juic, Museu d Historia de Catalunya, FC Barcelona Football Stadium, etc.
On Thursday after finishing in Barcelona, I drove some 300 kms westward to Zaragoza. I was there till Sunday with three other colleagues. Although I was short of time, I did manage to see its city centre – an array of cathedrals and churches lined up everywhere.
On Sunday afternoon I bid goodbye to Spain and returned to Germany hoping to return back someday again.

Yet another… on the same note

2006-08-06T10:52:00.000-04:00

Of late, this blog has been concentrating only on my weekends. There are two reasons for this. First, except for the stupid work, there is nothing to write about that happens in the weekdays. Second, no matter how the weekend is, there can always be a reason to write something. If it’s a good one, I can eagerly write about it with all the minute details and anecdotes. Otherwise too it’s fun scribbling all (almost all…) the craps my mind can think about during those two boring days. After all, empty mind is devil’s workshop!

Anyhow, this weekend was a concoction of both in that although most of the time I was in my room assaulting my computer with my weirdest of ideas or solving Sudoku, the rest of the time I was watching movies with Kashif – Three in all, viz.: Matrix, KKHH, and Bad Boys2. Apropos the former two, my opinion changed drastically since I watched them some years back. As much as I liked Matrix more than ever, I loathed KKHH from the beginning till the end. Bad Boys2, on the other hand, was quite a good blend of all the ingredients necessary to make a nice movie. Anyway its time I stopped typing and took a siesta in this lovely Sunday afternoon in Germany.

A wonderful weekend in Ohne and Amsterdam….

2006-08-02T13:56:00.000-04:00

It was supposed to be yet another normal boring weekend until as late as Thursday. Then it changed suddenly and drastically. Kashif excitedly suggested that we go to Amsterdam on Saturday and come back on Sunday. I found this a superb idea for none of us were in Amsterdam before. But on Thursday I got an invitation from my friend, Hans-Gerd to experience the Jungfrauenschuetzenfest (a local fete quite common in North Germany) in his native Place, Ohne. I was not sure how to handle this situation. On one hand, I didn’t want to miss the once-in-a-blue-moon chance of experiencing this fest. On the other, I was mentally prepared for Amsterdam. Finally I decided to visit Ohne on Saturday and Amsterdam on Sunday forgoing our idea of overnight stay in Amsterdam. On Saturday afternoon I went to Ohne. The party started at 03:00pm and went on till the wee hours of Sunday morning during which I had some really good time with Hans-Gerd and his family and friends. Later in the night, although the party was going on in full swing and I got to know many interesting people, I had to leave for my hotel at around 01:00am to catch some Z’s before we kickoff towards Amsterdam. The next day at around 11:00am we were in Amsterdam. After a breathtaking tour of Madam Tussaud, we kept on hanging around the Amsterdam streets for the rest of the day (I am leaving the details for you to guess….)

Amsterdam, apart from being famous for some well-known reasons, is a very beautiful city with people from all ethnicity and background. Even on Sunday it was more lively and bouncy than many other major cities. The canals are everywhere and add multitude of beauty and open space to the otherwise congested city. The only minus point vis-à-vis Germany – you can’t drive faster than 120kmph on express highways.

A weekend with two German families.

2006-07-26T11:28:00.000-04:00

Some days are boring, some good and some extremely exhilarating. So much so that you have to pick amongst your plans and do away with some of them simply because you do not have time to go over everything as you wanted. Somewhat similar happened with me this weekend when I was invited by five of my colleagues/friends to visit them this particular weekend itself!!!!! Since it was impossible for me to commit to all of them, I stuck with the one I committed myself at first – Rainer. One more reason why I chose Rainer was that I was invited by my friend Manfred too, who incidentally lives a stone’s throw away from Rainer’s house. Hence I was, in a way, able to kill two birds with one stone.
On Saturday morning after having my breakfast, I drove around 180 kms to pay Manfred a visit. I reached Wiesmoor(a small city in north Germany) at around 11’O clock. Surprisingly Manfred and his family were waiting to have breakfast together with me even though I had asked them not to wait. I felt quite embarrassed for letting them starving for so long. Anyhow, after more than a satisfying second-round breakfast, we drove some 100 kms to meet another colleague of mine. After meeting him we came back and strolled across river ‘Ems’ for quite a while. Manfred then showed me all the serenity, beauty, and calmness, East Frisian part of Germany has to offer. At around 8 pm we went back to his house and enjoyed grilling while it was drizzling outside. The delicious dinner was a multi-coursed meal and went on till 11pm. After that we watched some TV and then eventually hit the sack at around 1’O clock in the morning. Next day after a wonderful breakfast, I bid goodbye and went on to meet Rainer. Here also I had a great time. Later in the afternoon I started my return journey with some unforgettable sweet memories.

A bad day in Italy

2006-07-20T14:15:00.000-04:00

I hate Italy. Oh… sorry. I forgot you don’t know that I am again in Italy. Perhaps that also explains why I am writing after such a long gap (internet is certainly not in Italy’s top-most concerns). Anyhow, if I tell you about the misadventures I went through today, you will certainly accede to my viewpoints about Italy too.
It started today quite early in the morning. The hotel breakfast service was not available for some reason. So without coffee or breakfast we went to work hoping to get something from the vending machine. Not a bad idea but it turned out to be a little costly affair. The display on the vending machine stated that it had no change. Not bothering about return change, we inserted money and pressed respective buttons to get our product. Nothing wrong until now nor am I worried about those few cents the machine didn’t return. What surprised me although is that instead of showing the left amount still in the vending machine for the next user so that he/she may use that leftover credit, it devoured that within a minute if no button is pressed and shows zero credit. Nice Italian job. Anyway, I waited for the lunch but since we were quite busy we thought of forgoing lunch for a superb dinner in one of the finest restaurants in town. So I waited desperately for dinnertime. At exactly 8:30 pm we were sitting outside a good restaurant. The table was set with cutlery wrapped in a nice silk serviette. We went through the menu and were ready to order but nobody came to take our order for almost half an hour. We decided not to wait anymore and instead drove out for another restaurant. That was also not so good an idea for not only were most of the restaurants closed for reason only God knows better, the ones that were open had waiting times of almost thirty minutes. We even drove to the next city to find something but in vain. Eventually my hunger surpassed my threshold and I decided to go back to that restaurant from where we left in the first place. My colleague decided otherwise and went to sleep without having anything the whole day. I proceeded to the restaurant. The waitress apologized for ignoring us and quickly noted down my choice. The manager came as well and apologized with a promise of charging only 50% of the total amount. I was surprised at their gesture and hospitability. But this opinion was supposed to change soon. When I finished and asked for the bill, I noticed that they are charging the indicated price (plus 3,5 euros for cutlery!!!). When I reminded him of his promise of waving off 50% he grimaced and said that he meant that if I had to wait for another half hour, he would charge half the price. I did not argue, cleared the bill, and swore that I would rather die of hunger than visit this restaurant. Incidentally, the scarmozza cheese pizza that I ordered didn’t taste as well in spite of being so hungry. It was not my day after all. Anyway, I know this bitterness will fade soon enough but this incident is going to haunt me every time I am in Italy.

Liebe aus heiterem Himmel

2006-07-01T04:16:00.000-04:00

This is the German translation for the film: Kaho naa... pyaar hai. Yesterday while I was surfing the TV channel I saw this film being aired – in German language with German captions during the songs. Its not the first time that a Hindi film has been broadcast here in Germany but it’s the frequency with which it’s gaining popularity that leaves me perplexed. More so even with the fact that whenever I ask any of my colleagues about their opinion about Indian movies, they just find it too clichéd and hackneyed with all that dancing and singing around the trees. Then the question arises: who watches these films for them to be increasingly popular in Europe so much so that in some video stores you even have a Bollywood section!! Probably the older generation or women folk. Nonetheless, a good news for Bollywood.
But due to the amazing victory of Germany over Argentina in the WC, I think this film had only few takers. Given the enthusiasm and exuberance of Germans I doubt if anybody watched this film without being interrupted by their near and dear ones to join the celebrations. I, on the other hand, am not so great a football fan and therefore watched the movie in my hotel room until I felt asleep.

A weekend in Hamburg

2006-06-29T11:24:00.001-04:00

Weekends in most small German towns are quite boring. Already aware of the situation, I always try to plan for the weekend well ahead in advance. And this is what I did after I and Anas committed ourselves for a rendezvous in Hamburg this weekend. Actually Owais was also supposed to come but since he had some errands to run, he excused himself. Nevertheless I met Anas at around 2:30 PM in Hamburg Station on Saturday. Soon we proceeded to the city centre and strolled around for a while. Then we took a round-trip boat ride which was somewhat boring and time-consuming. After that we went straight towards the stadium to watch the match between Germany and Sweden but before we could reach there, the match ended with Germany winning 2:0. Despite that we did manage to catch the celebrations that followed, which continued for more than a couple of hours. It was absolutely amazing. Later on we realised that its past 9:30 in the evening and it might be difficult to get a meal or shelter anymore. Immediately we moved firstly searching for the place where we parked our car and then searching for a hotel. Only at around 11:00 PM we found a hotel that was not fully booked. At that time I was longing for Döner Dürum (a Turkish dish) and so we again wandered from one street to another to find some Turkish restaurant but in vain. Finally we settled for a pack of Pringles. The next day after having a heavy breakfast we again went to Hamburg city centre and did some more sightseeing. At around 4:00 PM we went to the hamburg station where I bid Anas goodbye. Altogether a great weekend for me to cherish it lifelong.

My trip to Italy in a nutshell!!

2006-06-23T03:43:00.000-04:00

My flight landed in Ancona at 1205 hours. Reluctantly as was instructed I went to the SIXT terminal to get a rented car. I was reluctant for the sole reason that last time in Milan I was denied a rented car from HERTZ because I was carrying an Indian Driving Licence !!!(although the only requirement to drive a vehicle without holding a residency in that country for not more than three months in almost any EU country is to have a valid driving licence written in English or that country’s official language). This in spite of the fact that I had my company’s HERTZ credit card and the fact that I have already driven in many EU countries as well as in the USA. Anyway, this time around they happily rented me a car – a Honda Jazz. I am not a Honda fan but I was so happy at that time to get a rented car in the first place I didn’t bargain for a better car. But given its 2006 make and it being automatic which I prefer, I don’t have any gripes.

Anyhow, just as I was out of the airport I faced quite an embarrassing situation. As soon as I entered the expressway I saw the toll booth fairly common in Italy. As usual I avoided the “TELEPASS/ViaCard (I think that’s what they call)” lane and proceeded towards “Cash” lane which was empty with no vehicles around. I quickly drove upto the booth but was surprised to find no one inside. It was practically a zugzwang situation for me for I was supposed to do something but had no idea what. Should I turn back immediately? Or should I wait for someone? Luckily for almost one minute (it felt like an hour in that situation) no vehicle came behind me and yelled, instead an officer started shouting from his office from the other side in Italian…. Even though it was inaudible I understood that he was hinting me at pulling the tag to open the barricade. I - a moron - then remembered the system here in Italy and immediately did so and proceeded cursing myself for being such a dolt. But now when I give it a second thought I think it wasn't really so stupid of me. Actually that booth never looked like an automatic one I was familiar with. It was a makeshift. Nevertheless, I moved on trying to forget it all and relax and enjoy the weather. But with those crazy Italian drivers it was impossible to maintain ones composure. Somebody told me once: more you move south in Italy, worse will be the traffic, better will be the cuisine, and more will be the crime. True to that I faced all sorts of frantic drivers who don’t have a moment’s patience. Add to that the fading/missing lane markings and traffic signs posted without sense made my trip an unforgettable one. I even once turned right instead of going straight after confusing the “keep right” sign to “compulsory right turn” because of the angle of the white arrow!! Anyhow I managed to reach Senigallia safe and sound.

Senigallia is a nice place. Even though I couldn’t explore the city as much as I would have liked to, I did manage to see it’s picturesque and never-ending beaches. Alas, my trip was a short one and I had to return to Ancona for my return flight, but here also I was in for a surprise. Guess what!! I was told that Germany in no more a schengen country during the world cup tenure (I have a schengen visa which normally permits one to visit most of the EU countries under schengen law without any passport checks etc). But after long discussions they gave me the boarding cards and loads of advices, warnings,……. It turned out to be a damp squib. Nothing happened. No passport check. Nothing. The plane landed smoothly and left the tarmac towards the domestic arrival hall. And now I am here at Lufthansa lounge in Münich waiting for my connecting in-land flight and simultaneously trying to connect to the internet which apparently after a brief free stint is now payable :(

Leaving for Germany

2006-06-15T05:41:00.000-04:00

Today I am leaving for Germany. No, not for football WC. Its part of my work. Actually I am no more an ardent football fan but I like to play it enthusiastically. Nevertheless, what made me write this blog is that irritating formality of procuring a visa everytime you want to travel abroad. I loathe this whole procedure of getting an appointment to visiting the consulate and waiting there for a couple of hours only to be granted a visa within a minute because you are a frequent traveller. The 9-11 tragedy (or its pretext) has only worsened the situation. Not only is your personal appearance required in most cases because not many travel agents are entertained, you need to furnish all sort of weird documents too failing which you have to apply anew with those missing documents i.e. more wait!! It leaves me baffling as to why in this age of globalisation we still have to go through these hassles/red tapes? I just hope for a better future and look forward to a great time in Europe.

New look

2006-06-14T05:20:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone... noticed this new look with which I have arrayed my blog.... Impressive.. err... awesome.... aint it?? so please leave a comment... or let me put it this way: I want you guys to leave a comment otherwise I will never know who came so close to knowing the greatest human on this planet!!!!

Tetris champs.

2006-06-13T04:15:00.000-04:00

Hey guys.. if you think you can play Tetris well enough. Think again. If you are still sure, check this out - The 2001 Tetris Japan Finals.

A great day.

2006-06-12T01:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a great day for me. At first it was the thrill of watching the French open final between Nadal and Federer. Basically I wanted to see Nadal in action but wanted Federer to lift the cup but it was not destined to be so. Anyway a great match to watch. Then the Formula 1 championship was also going on and I didn’t want to miss it. Here also I wanted to see Alonso in action but am a great supporter of Schumi. Then there were some good football matches and the cricket test match between India and West Indies was also in the pipeline. I watched all of them with due attention till the wee hours of the morning. Apart from these I also had a chance to watch two movies. But what left me awestruck was a mind-boggling and overwhelming 1.5 hour documentary refuting 9-11 terrorist attack theory. This video has been made by an American who has tried to prove his points very well. For example, if you see any video of the twin-towers collapsing, you will notice small explosions in lower levels too implying a planned implosion as against what has been told by the US officials. I know its very long to download it but I must tell you its worth the wait. This is only a part of what all has been researched. For more videos you can search under google video or click here

Anyway, for me it was a pretty interesting day except that the sun was creating havoc with mercury hovering at around 44 degrees!!

Fastest 0-100-0 car

2006-06-08T08:30:00.000-04:00

See the powerful Ultima GTR with 720 bhp under its belly setting a new world record for sprinting from 0 to 100mph (160kmph) and then back to 0 in just 9.4 sec.... I cant wait for this record to break which I am sure will follow soon ;)

My another blogspot identity

2006-06-07T06:32:00.000-04:00

This is what I wrote after I succesfully created another blogspot identity (http://ithinkthisisthelongestbloggerblogname.blogspot.com/)
--------------------------------
SCHEISSE
Yes.... this is the German word for what I experienced today trying to find an out-of-the-world name for one of my test blogs. I tried all the possible combinations (even using some German words) but in vain. You name it and you have a blog waiting for you even though nothing might be inside for the last few years. Finally the weirdest thought struck me and here I am with this cool address. Now I am sure nobody will ever look at this blog and I can try various stuffs without anybody having to gray their hairs trying to figure out what I am upto.
--------------------------------

Apropos the title, I share a nice incident I had last year in Chicago. While waiting for our turn at a local bowling club we went to the kiosk in its premises. There we ordered our stuffs but something struck me. On the top rack I noticed the word "IITYWIMWYBMAD" written. After pondering over it for few minutes I couldnt take it any more and finally asked the pretty lady to which she simply stated: If I told you what it means would you buy me a drink. I was spellbound only to realise later that I should buy her a drink which she gracefully declined.

UBUNTU

2006-06-02T07:50:00.000-04:00

For those who are UBUNTU fans (Although few in numbers - I guess!!), here is something which tells you what this word means. Watch Nelson Mandela explaining one of the numerous meanings of UBUNTU.

Lady Shri Ram College for Women

2006-05-30T07:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday while passing through "Lady Shri Ram College for Women", something struck me with regard to the name of the college itself (apart from other apparant things...). In this particular name we have the words 'Lady' and 'Women' connoting Feminity, and at the same time there are words like 'Shri' and 'Ram' connoting Masculity!!! Any takes???

Language I know: English (US)

2006-05-18T02:36:00.000-04:00

Being a late entrant to Orkut has its own oddity. While going through other users profile, I noticed how casually most of them (including me!!) have chosen US-English and not UK-English as the language one is conversant with. Its surprising because most of us Indians do not know those minute and subtle differences between US-English and UK-English, or for that matter, Indian-English. These differences exist not only in pronunciation and spelling but in meaning too. Apart from these there are altogether different words in use for the same stuff, leaving aside the local slang and phrases particular to the US only. Believe me folks, I have learned it the hard way.

Apropos pronunciation, I have a short anecdote to share: During my stay in Chicago to ward off my boredom, I decided to go to a movie theatre. The hotel receptionist gave me the directions to the theatre. Still not confirmed of the direction I asked if its besides the pond (pronouncing with a typical rounded mouth). She didn’t get it. After repeating it numerous times but in vain, I spelled it. Even that took a couple of seconds for her to comprehend after which she enthusiastically said “Oh! You mean the Phaand (stretching her mouth)”. I was glad she got it right. Few days later I drove through a drive-thru and asked for a “Cod fillet” – pronouncing once again in our typical style by rounding my mouth. Again the same problem and so I gave a shot. I yelled ‘Khaad – stretching and rounding my mouth at the same time’. And it worked again. So this time it was me who got it right. That day onwards I knew how to pronounce some other similar words eg Dollars, Bottom, common etc.

This is just one of the numerous instances when US-English clashed with Indian-English. And it was almost an everyday affair till I left that country after almost a year. Now I introspect and ask myself: Why do most of us say we know US-English when actually we don’t? Or, Why don’t we just say we know Indian-English or maybe British-English more than US-English? Is it just ‘IN’ to associate oneself with USA in everything happening in our lives? I guess that’s it. Most (not all) of us are in one way or the other, whether we accept it or not – obsessed with America for no reason. This is true with most people of the world which I can testify after meeting a lot of people around the world. Who knows this will change in a decade or so and we will feel proud to be knowing Chinese!!

A brief Sojourn in Dubai.

2006-05-16T01:10:00.000-04:00

Well, I shouldn’t actually be calling it a sojourn because I didn’t move out of the airport. Nevertheless I would like to share the experience I had at the Dubai international airport (Sheikh Rashid Terminal). It so happened that my flight should only had two hours stopover. But due to some last minute changes in my itinerary that brief stopover extended over a couple of more hours. At first I decided to take a transit visa. After being told that it will cost around USD 194, I was quite apprehensive. Shelling out around 200 bucks for few hours, of which I will spend the good part of it sleeping – not a good idea. Suddenly I remembered that there is one “International Hotel” in the airport premises too. I went there only to be told that all the rooms are occupied and that one room costs USD 211. So I decided that if I find a place in the airport where I can take a nap then ok else I am going to take that transit visa. Luckily there are many places in Dubai international airport where one can have a very sound sleep. Ironically, don’t even try to take a rest at places marked as “Quite area” because not only are they full and brightly lighted up, it makes no sense sleeping in not-completely-flat couches when you have other places to lie down. I would recommend places around gate 43 (at the end of the hallway) or downstairs near the passport control (it’s a long way from duty-free area). I decided to sleep at the airport also because since I knew that there will be a long stop-over in Dubai I took one blanket with me to give me that sound sleep I am used to and I long for.

Dubai airport is very beautiful. The construction work is always going on which might be irritating to some, but is also a testimony to the routine maintenance. It also seems that they are also expanding the terminals / building a new terminal building. The airport apart from being well equipped with modern amenities and luxuries has a very good automated logistics for the baggage transfer. But in spite of all these, I found atleast two drawbacks. The first and foremost is the way “Dubai duty-free” has been hyped. Its in no way cheaper than any other European duty frees. On the contrary, it might even be expensive. I checked on the price of a very typical “Apple Ipod nano – 4gb white”. And guess what, it was USD296!!! You can very easily get it under USD250 in many of the stores worldwide. The second drawback is lack of wifi zones. There was none I found. Although there are some small kiosks or cubicles with internet connections but they are full. I am very sure Dubai is very well integrated with internet and wifi but at airport they haven’t invested on this issue. Even in the modest airport of Sao Paolo in Brazil I had seven wifi service providers and of them atleast one was free!!

Last post from Casablanca.

2006-05-15T03:48:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am leaving Morocco for good :-(( But it was an experience I will never forget. As I posted earlier, my opinion about Morocco has changed considerably. Now I like this place a lot more. Maybe because our host (Atmane Said and Madani Said) were one of the most friendly, charming and interesting persons I have ever met. I learnt a lot not only about Morocco but beyond that as well after meeting them. Today was even more special day for me coz Atmane not only invited me to his home (a place appropriately called California) to meet his family but also asked me to join them for Lunch. And guess what, I ate the most typical Moroccan food - CousCous. It is basically some grains made from wheat flour using a special bowl which is cooked on a two layer vessel with this CousCous on the top and vegetables (mainly cabbage and carrots) and meat on the lower level. These two are then served with a special sauce as gravy and another thick mixture made of raisins etc. Believe me folks, it was amazingly delicious.. Yummy...

Yesterday also I got a chance to try another typical Moroccan dish served normally on most of the wedding ceremonies - Pastell del blah blah blah.... It had in any case a little hard topping like that over a Lasagne albeit sweet with a very unusual brown colour meshed mixture of meat and vegetables inside.

Drifting away a bit from delicacies, here are some more facts about Morocco that you might be interested to know:

- In most of the languages, morocco is spelled marokko (or marocco). I don’t know how 'a' was replaced by an 'o' in English! I asked Atmane too but he also had no answer.

- Morocco is called "Al Maghraib" in Arabic which means land of the west. Probably because it might be called the western-most Arabian country of the world.

- There are many Berber speaking people in morocco but Berber was not granted an official status until as late as 2003.

- Casablanca might be the capital, but its governed from Rabat and Marrakech is its tourist hotspot and probably Feh the cultural capital.

- While the great mosque of Casablanca was being built, all Moroccans were coerced to contribute money. When the King of Saudi paid a visit, he asked if Jews also contributed some money. Getting an affirmative answer he was naturally very disappointed. The king of morocco tried to pacify his concerns by telling him that the money contributed by Jews have been used to build toilets!!!

- Although its prohibited to serve alcohol to Muslims, most people get around this very easily without doing anything because most of the bars have some nexus with police itself. Remember that nepotism looms large in this country.

- This country is one of the largest producers of oranges but alas, almost 70 percent of them are thrown into the sea because of shortage of domestic and foreign demand.

City centre of Casablanca

2006-05-07T11:14:00.000-04:00

Today I got an opportunity to see this country from inside. We went through their bazars constituted mainly by narrow arcades and promenades. There was a lot of hustle and bustle all around. The narrow streets, half of them encroached by small businesses and kiosks, seemed to lead us nowhere. There was an unending mesh of those narrow lanes. Finally, we saw the majestic Hassan II Mosque. It took almost 13 years to complete the construction work. It is also the second largest mosque in the world (after the Shah Faisal Mosque near Islamabad). Its Minaret is the tallest in the world at 210 metres. The mosque and its courtyard can also accommodate more that 100,000 people at a time!!!! The view of the atlantic in its proximity adds immense beauty to its grandeur. All in all it was a superb day.

Trivia: Casablanca is also called "white house" because there were many white colored houses when some portuguese landed some ceturies back(In spanish 'Casa' means 'house' and 'Blanco' is 'white').

Live from Casablanca - Morocco

2006-05-06T16:50:00.000-04:00

Since my arrival last week, morocco has constantly belied my previous impressions and thoughts about this country. Everything is being defied. My impression of morocco was of a typical poor african country inhabited by mostly black religious people. Contrary to that, its more arabian than african and its sparsely inhabited by typical arabian race people.

Talking of weirdness, today I got to know something which stumped me for a while. Morocco is the world's largest exporter of Hashish!!! To bate my curiosity, one of the local guys even brought some grass (Hashish means grass in Arabic) and started smoking.
Apart from Hashish, morocco unlike many arabic countries consumes much alcohol too. I have been told that corruption is also crossing its limit (inter-alia Nepotism and bribery are commonly acceptable). The cost of living is also quite high comparable to that of any european country (Our four star hotel is leaving us around 150 Euros dearer everyday!!). Then the question arises: what is good about morocco? Well, I am still looking for the answers. But there is certainly no doubt about the friendly and affable nature of people. They also play a good host:-)

Moroccan Embassy - Continued....

2006-05-02T02:41:00.000-04:00

contd....
Today they somehow accepted my application and after much nagging they even told me that they (the visa section) received the fax. I am keeping my fingers crossed till 3'O Clock when they will tell me the status. As promised here are two snaps from the embassy's rear entrance (I have been although told that the front is very impressive).

Notice how they manged to identify themselves by collaging the number "33" which is their building number highlighted by a red circle, and the words "Mor" and "occo" marked on the right by another red circle!!!!!!

Apropos 3'O Clock, do you know what does 'O' Clock means? As per my information it means "Of the clock"

Moroccan Embassy - New Delhi

2006-05-01T01:07:00.000-04:00

A very wierd topic, right! Well, it certainly deserves a place in this blog and that too in golden letters to remind me and everyone else of the horrific experience I went through.

It all started last week when I was supposed to fly to Morocco (a not-so-known country in NW Africa - will write more if I make this trip after getting a visa). As always the first and probably the only hurdle was getting a visa which, by the way, I thought was not a problem anymore since I have traveled a lot and seen many countries. But that turned to be a bad thought. Firstly, my travel agent who normally procures visas for me was shown the way out three times in a row citing zillion ridiculous reasons. It was time I went there but it didn't fructify as well. I was told that the Embassy has not received any invitation letter from my sponsors in Morocco. Cross-checking revealed that the letter was already sent last week. Nevertheless, I asked them to resend the same. The next day after three trips to their awful and dilapidated building (will post the photos tomorrow), I was told that they have received the invitation but the visa section (which is a stone's throw away from their main office where the fax was sent) didn't receive it. Therefore, I need to wait till they receive the fax and reapply for the visa. I was rendered speechless. Today is now the third working day and they have still not managed to send the fax few tables across!!! I hope to get some success tomorrow, getting which I am gonna yell at them like hell.

In one word this odyssey was a "Nightmare". The battle is still on.

First one: The gambit!!!

2006-04-25T01:33:00.000-04:00

This is my first blog. Well, not really. Today only I tried my hand at yahoo 360 and then right now I am here. Aint it great: two blogspots in a day.
Will keep posting (I hope so...)