Dubai Trip

So finally I did travel :) And this time, it was to Dubai. It was my first trip west of India. And I was mighty excited. And Dubai was a lot of what I had expected. And in many ways it was very different too. For starters, Dubai's economy isn't driven by oil. In fact only 15-20% of GDP was because of Oil. The oil is mostly in Abu Dhabi. Dubai is much like Singapore, driven by service sector.

The 2008 recession hit Dubai hard with exodus of a lot of expatriates. From articles I have read, people would drive their car to the airport, buy one way ticket and exit Dubai, leaving their Ferrari's and Prado in the parking lot. Dubai experienced a construction boom in 2003-2008, with buildings coming up at breakneck speed. The speculative market in housing prices and rentals fuelled the boom, and when the crash came, it bankrupted a huge percentage of population. Dubai, basically went bankrupt and Abu Dhabi had to step in to pay the debts. So much so that the tallest tower in Dubai - the Burj Khalifa was initially called Burj Dubai (or Dubai towers) but the name was changed to Burj Khalifa after the Abu Dhabi ruler who paid for the tower's completion in 2008.

Dubai is a man made city built on barren land with buildings, offices, malls dotting the entire landscape. The closest one can get to India is Gurgaon- albeit a well planned one. The land is barren but it is simply buildings and lands and roads and a productive and thriving economy. So in essence Dubai per se has no natural landscape (it does have a desert and a coast), but its man-made landscape is no less impressive and inspiring. Dubai in my opinion is a great example of sheer willpower to create something big. Malls in Dubai reek of opulence. The newer part of Dubai with its glittering malls, offer the best brands from across the world. If it is present in London, Milan, New York Paris or Shanghai, it is here in Dubai. Dubai is an expatriate dominated population with only 20-25% of population being local.

Thus, you find Argentinean cuisines in this small city which you wouldn't find that easily in say a Singapore. Not only in terms of cuisines and brands but the malls try and bring every possibly experience to Dubai so that you have absolutely nothing to complain. The Dubai mall, had a giant aquarium where you can go diving - beat that.. and the Emirates mall has a huge indoor ski resort, where you can go skiing . Whoa!

To give you a measure of Dubai's wealth - These are gold ATMS. ATMs that dispense Gold Bars. hah :)

It gets so hot for 6-7 months a year that one has to spend time indoors and malls seem are the ideal hangout spots. I should say that the malls weren't a novelty factor for me, given that Singapore is also quite similar, but then it was fun as a tourist. The most enjoyable part of the trip for me was meeting the brand manager I had been working with over the last few months over phone and emails. He is from Pakistan. He is extremely well read and knowledgeable. We got along absolutely fab when we met. It was such a stimulating and mind opening conversation just to hear narratives of events that we are contemporary witnesses, yet from an completely new perspective - a perspective that is steeped in a different set of experiences and consciousness. I am not talking about the clichéd topic of India Pakistan and Kashmir. We spent few hours talking about the Middle east, Pakistan, perceptions of India, the unrest in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and other regions, the local customs, global politics, oil economics and so on.

He was narrating a story of how when he and his colleague ( an NRI Indian and Hindu) were travelling in Egypt on work, the local Egyptians were very fascinated and excited due to presence of a Hindu. They started asking her questions on Hinduism and its customs etc. She was struggling to answer and the brand manager stepped in explained to the Egyptians in detail about Hinduism and its tenets. I sat there listening to him in wonder on his depth of knowledge and more importantly in admiration of his nature to learn and know more and more.

One of the biggest learning for me from this trip was that Pakistan and the people of Pakistan are more Indian than I had ever imagined. Well, that may not be the right articulation, but what I mean to say is that I really understood why Pakistan is included as part of 'sub continent'. Why both of us call ourselves 'Desis'. Pakistan has little in common with Middle-East. Even the language Urdu is closer to Hindi and is very very different from Arabic- so much so that two native Urdu and Arabic speakers cannot understand each other easily. Cricket and Bollywood are huge in Pakistan and my colleagues from Pakistan quoted movies and songs and dialogues from movies across the decades.

In our team on a particular day, there were three Pakistanis in the meeting and later that evening we stepped out for a team dinner. And boy did the three of them get into 'mood'. For close to 45 min, the three of them (including the brand manager) took turns to belt out 'Sher and Shaayari and qawwalis'.

I sat there mesmerized. They had couplets for every mood, every emotion and every situation. And it wasn't just a two line chorus but the full length easily running into 10-12 lines. Brillianto!

Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to Dubai. In the last 7-8 months that I have been out of India, there is one thing that I have learnt from my personal observation of people especially Indians. When Indians move out of India, they tend to converge together and hanging out with Indians. And if there are plenty of Indians then they tend to hang out with Indians from their part of the country etc. I call this the ghetto-isation. I completely understand this mindset - we create islands of familiarity in a new environment where similarity is seen as a reaffirmation of some form of kinship. However, many a times we are so steeped in this mentality that we miss out the experiences of local culture, people that can provide us some incredibly new stimuli and learning experiences that can really broaden our horizons. From simple reading of books to experimenting with cuisines to visiting museums to engaging in conversations with other nationalities can be such an enriching experience.

Adho paru - Minnal

I have written over past few years about how I love to travel and meet people and how my work helps me with just that. I have not moved out of Bombay in close to 3 months. This is the longest period since I joined work where I have had no travel

The last time I travelled on work was in early June. I was in Chennai and as part of some project I found myself being ushered into a house in Abhiramapuram area. I was accompanied by my colleague NonStop (NS in short) who in her sheer excitement of being in Chennai, a land where she could find girls who could speak my language, had for reasons beyond my understanding, decided seal my fate with a girl, any girl that day itself. (Yes, it is mission among a select group in office to get me hitched, regardless of the fact that everyone but one in the 'select' group is single). Anyways, her obsession had reached ridiculous levels. She could be spotted nudging me to put a 'looku' whenever she spotted a girl within 100m radius. So what if the girl was only 18. Sigh!

Anyways back to the point. We were sitting in this house in Abhiramapuram talking to the lady of the house. As the conversation skittered between personal topics and others, she (the lady of the house) let it out that she had a daughter who was going to do her MBA. Clearly, 'ting ting ting' happened and NS, shedding all pretensions of professional conduct, stamped my leg. I was quite sure that the lady would have noticed this very minor but obvious infraction of conduct, but I was saved by the telephone. The lady excused herself and this gave me enough time to send a glare back at NS, which I am sure, gave her the message, Vellilai va! neeya naana paathukkalam (come outside I say, let us decide on this today!). NS being NS wasn't willing to let me have the last word, even in the non-verbal communication that we were having and continued to make some contorted facial expressions that I think meant – ‘ K to you’. While we were in the midst of this very engaging conversation, we heard the lady giving out some instructions on the phone. And we both realised that she had a just yelled out her daughter's name and had also dropped in a totally irrelevant piece of information that she had taken the car out and wasn’t expected back for a while.

NS, gave me a sly smile which meant, 'hmm.. that chick drives a car.'. She got was a cold shoulder in return. We soon resumed our conversation with the lady, and both NS and I, were deeply engrossed in our work related aspect of the visit, eager to finish it off quickly. One numbers full-plate meals at Saravana Bhavan was just half an hour away now. 'Trrrring' the door bell rang and in walked a cute girl in an Orangish-yellow sari. She was clearly coming back home from a wedding. She was about to start a conversation with her mom which was stopped midway through the first sentence, when she sensed our presence. She quickly headed for her room. My eyes followed her till she was out of sight. I felt I had seen her earlier somewhere and was running a 'quick search and retrieve function' mentally. It wasn’t too successful.

I was desperately avoiding looking at NS, who I could sense was sporting such a wide grin that I was sure that the edges of her mouth were close to her ears or maybe eyes or maybe both. Anyways we got back to the task at hand and soon forgot about this incident. We were tired, the heat was sapping away our energy and the enticement of Thaair saadam with Vadu manga and mor molaga (Curd rice with pickles) was just too irresistible. We completed our work and were about to leave when S(the girl's name – you think I wouldn’t remember that??) emerges from her room, in a very short split skirt, drinks cold water from the fridge and walks back. Phew! Minnal

I have travelled length of this country and over 3 years met close to 1000 people, visited around 200 odd homes, in Chennai, Bombay, Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh (land of Priyanka Chopra, at least in the movie Fashion), Bangalore and so on. Visited some of the most affluent people to the poorest, sat through in the most mind numbing sessions and yet never once had a bumped into a girl of nubile age. And finally, in Chennai..

I did not want to leave the house immediately, but didn’t have much of a choice. I was contemplating, whether I should drop my visiting card (but that would be too in your face) or maybe leave my notebook or cell phone behind and use that as an excuse to drop in later. But my better judgement prevailed. I knew the house and her name. I didn’t think I needed anything else. So we quietly left.

The 'select group' congregated at Amethyst coffee shop that evening and subsequently in Bombay where this issue was debated. NS raised a question on how I knew what a split skirt was and how I could identify a split skirt within a split second. The first part was answered by a simple glare that made her retreat and for the second part, I gave her a detailed explanation on how it was possible to figure out whether it was a split skirt or a skirt or shorts. She wasn’t convinced. Here I had to enlist support of another dear colleague Super-SoDi. Super-SoDi hails from South Delhi and hence by default is more knowledgeable in such superficial matters. Super-SoDi ruled in my favour and the conversation then moved to what now? That is when my colleague Punch-mama and I decided to take control. The two of us have loafed the streets of Chennai in our respective heydays and have a reputation for ‘street’ smartness After careful analysis that included parameters like location of her house, her neighbourhood, family profile, the language she spoke (mix of English than Tamil), her dressing sense etc etc we drew up her profile and shortlisted three colleges from which she could’ve graduated. Punch-mama's wife who hails from one of the shortlisted colleges offered all her assistance.

In a few days that topic died its natural death. From making three trips to Chennai in May-June, I don't see any more coming up in the near future. Such is life!

Glossary

NonStop (NS)- She speaks NonStop. Period. Does not even pause to catch some air. I think she isn’t human . Whoever said brevity is the soul of wit was clearly mistaken.

Super SoDi- An absolutely affable person who hails from south Delhi. For the uninitiated it is the land of air kisses and ‘bling’ attire fashionistas. Everything that happens to her is in the superlative. She always has the weird-est of dreams, funny-est of incidents, sad-est of days, embarrassing-est of moments and so on. You get the picture.

Punch-mama Or Punchline mama never fails to deliver the right (and corniest) of punch lines in every presentation to senior management.For e.g. ‘From Now to Wow’ .I am sure he researches and prepares hard and waits for opportune time to deliver the punches.

This and That

It is difficult to let go.

There are people who would not want to get attached because it hurt when you have to move on. By attachment I don't necessarily mean an individual but it could be with an idea, a book, a city, college, job etc. I do not shy away from getting attached. It aches when bonds are broken but when you are so attached but the beauty of the relationship is anything but enhanced.

But today, I see the flip side of getting attached. The relationship seems well past its prime, (which I desperately hope against) but I am affected by how things are between my friend and me. Admittedly it is has not been the best in past few months but I am caught between wondering why it can't get better to whether I've reached dead end.

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It hasn't been a great month in terms of news. I heard that a good friend of mine is getting divorced just two years into his marriage. Now without going into where things went so wrong, I am kind of affected. This friend's wife (or ex-wife) would possibly match most of the criteria which I would have for my partner when I decide to get into the matrimonial arena. So this incident has left me thinking.

I believe that purity of purpose and intent (of being together) should be the moral compass than any hallowedness being attached to the institution of marriage. Am I being too idealistic? Are we pulling the emergency exit button a little too soon?

I guess when it rains, it pours. Another friend of mine just called off his relationship with his fiancé, just when the family had started talking to each other to fix wedding dates. And an acquaintance’s wedding was called off 2 days before the wedding-date because the girl felt she wasn't ready to get married. And this was after 7-8 months of courtship. Hmmm..

Anyways, I know that enough number of couples exist who are living their happily-ever-after dream. So nothing can be generalised (both good and bad incidents). However, the 'bad' incidents used to happen to someone who I would have never heard of. Today it is in my own circle.

And all of the above occurred in the past one month.

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And somewhere in the midst of all this I turned a year older. I have derived a strong correlation between age and number of people who come-over/call at midnight. The older you get the number of people who come over and / or call at midnight declines significantly. So also there is a trend observed on decline of calls and shift towards sms, facebook/ orkut scraps. All ominous signs of growing older J

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Come June and I will be done 3 years in Mumbai. 3 years in my first job. Whoa! When and how did time slip off? Ok. Now I realise that this post sounds whiny. So I stop here. I am planning course correction get some more activity back in my life. I intend to be out in the Ghats almost every weekend once the rains start. Junta care to join?

By the way, I was looking through calendar for the year. In end September and early October, I noticed that If I take 7 days off I get 16 days break. (Thanks to Ramzan, Dassera and Gandhi Jayanti). So I can plan for a long vacation. People Suggestions? Open to both domestic and international locales. (Note: I am a budget traveller)

Me being me

Back. After a short break. Rather a hiatus. Did you guys miss me? OK fine, I know now I am stretching it too far.

I've been busy. And of course travelling. I know, I know. You are like.. so what’s new about that?

Well, I was in Singapore for 10 days and that is a refreshing change from all the places that I have been travelling over the past one year. I was attending training sessions for a week. I spent the weekends on either side in Singapore catching up with friends.

The trip was a welcome break from the routine that is my life in Mumbai.

- A barbecue by the beach where we sat by the beach (or the so- called-beach) and gazed at the quiet sea while thulping down bottles of beer and nachos with hot salsa.

- A lunch that ended with us grabbing some snacks at the end of it because conversations consumed 4 hours while we thought it was 1.

- Long walks and longer chats on life universe and everything in between along Boat Quay.

I did work too. Just in case you thought otherwise. I worked hard 6 days a week because during the day I was in the training sessions and in evenings I had to finish my own work and the India office was still working. And of course I went out and stayed out till late. On an average I slept for not more than 5-6 hours per day over the course of my stay. That of course meant that I returned with black circles and not dark circles and everyone at work concluded that I had a great trip. I concur.

What I am not mentioning here is that I have put on a couple of kilos simply because of my unrestrained and sometimes gluttonous consumptions of simple pleasures of life - Hagen Daaz, Ben & Jerry and the likes.

I landed late on Sunday night and got little sleep as I woke up at 7 am Singapore time or 4.30 India time. And since then I haven't got much sleep. A sudden travel plan had materialised while I was in Singapore and all the work that I had planned for the week had to completed in a day in Bombay. So no sleep on Monday night. Tuesday night I was in Delhi. And Wednesday early morning I drove to Karnal.

Karnal is a 120 kms drive from Delhi and around 2-4 hour drive depending on the time of the day. Karnal is named after Karna from Mahabharat. I was dreading the Delhi-Haryana summer heat but surprisingly it rained through the day. And what an awesome drive it turned out to be. The quintessential Yash Raj movie type picturesque drive. Zipping on NH 1 with fields on both sides and moist/ wet air blowing into our faces. Whoa! The fields weren't green as it is summer, they were brown, but still, it is such a satisfying sight to the sore eyes that have been subjected to Mumbai's grime and Singapore's manufactured and well crafted beauty.

I finished work and drove back another 3.5 hours reaching my guest house very late. A late dinner with a colleague which involved of course mandatory cribs about work, state of world affairs, India's win in New Zealand and my passion - politics and policies. Thus ended an eventful day.

I was up at 6 am this morning as I had to catch Shatabdi to Ludhiana. I rushed out at 6.20 and returned to guest house at 6.30 as I had forgotten the ticket at home :). Picked up the ticket and a colleague of mine en route and zipped to the station. Thank God for Delhi roads and infrastructure that we reached the station 35 kms away in 35 minutes flat. It is unimaginable in any other city in India. But there was a jam outside the station. So the last few hundred meters we dumped the car and ran in. We jumped into our compartment and in 2 minutes the train left. Phew! Whoever, says my life is uneventful.

I am writing this from the train. I have written about my train journeys on this sector earlier here. But there is one thing I have to, have to mention. No it is not how clean the train is or that I have internet connectivity thorough out the 4 hour ride. One of my colleagues cancelled out as some other work came up late last night. There was no time to cancel the ticket. When the TTE (train ticket examiner for the uninitiated) came to check our tickets, we showed him our tickets and mentioned that one passenger did not come and we wanted to cancel the ticket and hadn't had time to do so yet and hence want an attestation and we would cancel at the counter later. (This has been the standard operating procedure)

And no, he just pulled out a hand held. And punched in our ticket numbers and Wholla! my ticket was cancelled and the refund credited to my credit card. I first thought that this was some form of practical joke. Then he patiently informed me that the palm was connected wirelessly and he has in fact cancelled the ticket and the money is actually being credited to my card! Am I impressed or what! This is seriously cutting edge technology. I know no one would believe me so I got a shot of the palm and him punching my ticket details..

The Governments over the past few years (last decade or so) have been doing some stellar work. The Sarvashiksha Abhiyaan(universal education) started in 2002, today has ensured that 75% of children between the age of 6 and 14 attend primary schools. Today's Hindustan Times carries article on how in Chattisgarh the enrollment is 97.5%. In a state where 33% of the population is tribal and the only language the parents know is the local dialect, the kids are learning Hindi and English. And these educated youngsters ten years down will soon demand better life and access to amenities that the governments of the day will have to provide.

The next big revolution is required is in education sector. And BJP's promise on spending 6% of India's GDP on education is a welcome step in this regard. Invest today, reap tomorrow! IMHO( In my honest opinion) there are two sectors that provide huge business potential in India in medium and long term (5+ years). Education is one. With over 40% of India's population in less than 25 age bracket till 2025, the opportunity is begging to be noticed. The other one is matrimony and allied services :). Imagine the number of weddings in the next few decades. The recent record was 36,000 in Delhi on one single day last December. I rest my case.

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I write this as I sit in the flight from Delhi to Chennai. I returned late last night from Ludhiana. My train came in at 10.45pm 15 minutes early. No one was prepared for being ahead of time that when people in the compartment realised that train had reached Delhi, a mad scramble began to collect the luggage and rush out. By the time I reached my guest house and crashed it was 12.30 am and I was at the airport at 5.30 to catch this flight. I am seriously sleep-deprived, not having slept for more than 4-5 hrs in the last 5-6 days. Add a bit of jet lag, 7 hr car drives and 8 hour train rides, I am exhausted. But there is a strange contentment on going back to Chennai. :) A friend of mine is getting married over the weekend so have host of functions to attend. I am planning to steal a trip to Mahabalipuram over the weekend. Let’s see.

After Chennai I go back to Bangalore. I am taking off the next week. Home beckons. I have some plans for the next week, but lest that it gets jinxed I am going to keep it to myself. If they materialise, I will put up and update and some photographs :) (Of course, it is related to travel!)

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I have been listening a lot to Dilli-6. Rehman has set a benchmark that reminds me of Roja. Yes I know I am mentioning this for the second time in this blog but hey its worth mentioning. Read Aadisht's understanding of Nava-Rasas in Rehman's composition esp. Dilli-6.

But this time I am going to talk about the lyrics. After having been subjected to mostly crappy and at best mediocre Bollywood and Tam lyrics in most of the last decade, the few gems that come out are ever more treasured. Dilli-6 i think is Prasoon Joshi's best so far. I am going to mention just two songs here.

'Arziyaan Saaare' is starts of by stating that everything is about surrendering completely (tere dar pe jhooka hoon, mita hoon, bana hoon) to the all powerful 'Marammad muqaddar ki kardo maula' and all knowing. 'Tumse kya maangoon main tum khood he samajh lo'. Then Prasoon subtly leads the lyrical narration from the seeking Almighty elsewhere (ek khushbu aati thi, mai bhatakta jaata tha) to making us realise that the khusbhu lies within us (mujhme hi woh khusbhu thi jisse tune milwaya). BRILLIANTO!. I particularly like the last part. Sar jhooka ke ek pal me maine kya nahi paaya. Abject humility is a virtue, whether you are a believer or not.

The other one is KalaBandar – the metaphorical beast within us. This one hits out at our facades and pretences, underlying biases and prejudices. From the first line, the song does not mince any words and asks tough questions (he kaala bandar bahar hai ya andar) and clearly calls out that it is not easy to seek an answer to this question especially when everyone is looking everywhere but within themselves. It is difficult to introspect as when we do introspect all we see is our grievances and shortcomings. (aao ham sheesha dekhein, ghayal hissa dekhen,alsi kissa dekhein).

But when we look deep within us, we will realise that the Kaala-bandar are all deep within us. Read this ..

Jaan ke bhi hain anjaan hai hum sab,

paagal hain ya nadaan hain hum sab,

jan se hain hum rang birange

hamaam mein hum sare nange!

Loosely translated as

We know this truth (it is all within us)

yet we feign ignorance

Either we are mad or we are really innocent.

While we may hide behind our differences in front of the truth we stand exposed

( That is a very terrible translation, I apologize profusely. My (in)competence stands exposed.)

And the finale summarises most of our attitudes very succinctly.

' I am happy with the bandar as long as he dont get me, he can stay even longer, it dont bother me!

bandar dont go away and bandar kaala bandar I beg you to stay)

When I fully comprehended the lyrics of this song, word by word, for the first time, I was in a state of nirvana. The intellectual incisiveness just blew me away. I am ecstatic and at the same time humbled by the brilliance.

Folks who haven't heard the songs in Gulaal should definitely listen to it. It also has some really great lyrics. It is better understood when we see it in the context of the movie.

Anyways, looking forward to a relaxed week.

Oh Calcutta

One of my closest friends got married this week. I was in Calcutta for her wedding. And I had a good time. No, infact, absolutely fabulous time.

I am trying to put my finger on the exact reason why it felt so good. I guess it was the company. 7-8 of my batchmates, quite a few seniors that I know and a few colleagues. It was the first wedding that I have attended in recent times, where I knew so many people personally.

Or the other reason could be that the wedding was such an intimate gathering of close family and friends in such a wonderful setting. A small house and garden on the banks of a pond/lake, a wooden bridge across a small waterbody - one of those which makes that woody-rickety sound when one walks on it. Not the old dilapidated sound, but one that evokes a slight tinge of nostalgia of the good times shared. The place was tastefully done up with flowers- bright, simple and elegant. There were only 50-60 people at the wedding, fully engaged in the proceedings. We sat around the mandap and watched and interacted, cracked jokes, poked fun and celebrated. The glorious winter calcutta sun joined the celebrations showering warmth and affection over the intimate gathering.

Continuing on the reasons bit, a simple gesture that felt really good was that everyone who came for the wedding from outstation was received by someone regardles s of the arrival time by train or air. I was received by one of my seniors and I in turn did couple of trips to receive some friends. Those who read this blog would know that I travel quite a bit. Infact I've been traveling ever since I left home for hostel after school. And in all my travels, even though I know that there would be no one at the airport or station or bus stops to receive me, I always look out for known/familiar faces. It is just a nice feeling for me when someone is there to receive. Period. Anyways, the gesture did not stop at receiving us. The bride and the groom had not slept the entire night, but were there at the airport at 5am to see us off. I was given the walk of honour right upto the security beyond which they were not allowed. Else I am sure they would have walked me right upto the flight. This gesture is really reflective of who they are. Nice, genuine people who care for friends and family. No wonder the two days were filled with the 'feel good' factor.

No trip to Calcutta can be called complete complete without puchkas, jhalmuris, sandesh, rosogullas and mishti dahi. Some shopping at New Market, a pilgrimage trip to Eden Gardens and Mohun Bagan and a drive through the howrah bridge and the trip was complete :)

The sun rose early by 530 and set by 5pm. It was dark by 530. The malls and eateries were teeming with people at 630ish while by 8, the crowds had thinned down. By 9 many shops were closed. This is quite contrary to Mumbai where there is sunlight till 7.30ish (may be 630 in winter) and given the travel required, dinner is usually 9 o clock plus. And everyone was wearing winter wear and half sweater. And a person on the scooter was wearing monkey cap. I don't quite understand this because the temparature was may be 18-20 C and I was walking around in shorts and T-Shirt. I wonder what I have been missing.

Park street and all the streets in that area are all one way. In the morning from 7 am to 1pm park street is one way towards the office direction and shakespeare road is one way in the opposite direction. This is to facilitate traffic movement in the direction of offices. However post 1pm till evening the one way is reversed. It is now in the direction away from the offices to facilitate traffic movement. And its not just one road which turns turtle, but infact almost all roads in the area including the feeder roads turn turtle. It can be quite confusing to a person who is new to Calcutta. As my friend quipped, ' Its like the entire city turning inside out'

I quite liked the relaxed atmosphere in Calcutta. People are in no hurry. I don't know if I can live here for a long but for a short duration it is great. You get a lot of time for yourself and family to pursue your interests, to have a life.

One of seniors in my company narrated this experience about Calcutta. This was 10 years ago in 1998 and he was in IIM Calcutta. It was two or three days to go for Valentines day and he had to speed post his valentine's card to his girlfriend else it wouldn't reach on time. He was standing at the Jokha post office in the long speed post queue at 5 pm and the speed post van had just rolled into the post office complex. If he missed sending it by that evening's delivery, the card wouldn't reach on time. And given the long queue he was sure to miss it. As he stood there in the long queue wondering what to do, the gentleman standing ahead of him noticed the unmistakable envelope in his hand and asked him 'valentine's day?'. When he nodded in affirmation, the gentleman yelled out to the row of people standing in front of him ' Urgent. Speed post for Valentine.' And everyone in the queue smiled and let him through to the front so that he could send the speed post first. This person claims that this level open mindedness and that too in 1998 cannot be found anywhere but Calcutta. I have a strong suspicion that his Mallu lineage will by default convert praises to eulogies when it is about fellow Bongs. But still I have to agree that the open mindedness and live and let live atmosphere of Kolkatta is probably unmatched in this country.

How I wish that they (people of Bengal) embrace the develop and let develop culture too.

Travel and Learning - 4

So I am back with my traveling pictures. This time also it was on work. We went to this place called Galibore fishing and nature camp, around 2 hours from Bangalore on the banks of Cauvery.

The good thing about this place is that there is no cell phone network. Which automatically means that you are forced to interact with people around you and cannot get up and walk away for that long phone call. You are both physically and mentally present.

This was work cum pleasure trip. We enjoyed coracle rides, hikes and campfires. When we did work, it was fun - on the banks of Cauvery, sun shimmering through the camouflage and a cool breeze with just enough chillness factor to keep us huddled.

Early morning. A little late for me as I wanted to catch day break. Was thinking of a dip when I was told that the river is 70 -90 feet deep with strong under currents and stronger crocodiles.

The hike to the top of the misty mountains. I was secretly praying that I would find myself in the middle of clouds. The clouds had sadly melted away, but they left their mark - dew drops . Btw the I reached the summit first :)

That is me. Just check out the lazy sweeping bend of the river behind. And just count the number of shades of green in this picture.

Me and my colleague - I am not quite able to pinpoint why this is my favourite snap. May be because the grass gives the snap a gladiator-movie-scene like feel. May be it is just the fact the we were just so happy in the environs and that shows. Or may be this picture is somewhere quite close to who we are.

This is where we stayed. Simple, luxurious and elegant. The fun part was when we had to have bath in cold water :)

We were on a work trip remember? So I continued doing what I do best at work ;) . But I tell you the cool wind, sound of gentle flowing water, birds chirping and pleasant sunshine through tall sheltering trees can really be soporific.