Where am I???

I've been convinced.

And I'll catch you all from Sydney tomorrow.

The First of June

June 1st marked two unusual anniversaries for me.
First, it marked my being in India for one whole year. I haven't been in one country for at least 365 days in a row since I left the US in January 2004.
Second, it marked my being in Asia for three whole years. I haven't been in one continent for such an uninterrupted length of time since August 1993.
Life's really become dull of late.

Tagged...again

Rules:

Link to the person that tagged you—this would be Tiffany.

Post the rules on your blog.

Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

My 6 non-important quirks (What? Don't you guys know enough about me already??):

1. Whenever I visit a new country, I seek out the local chocolate. I almost failed in Spain, because they cleverly import almost all of theirs from Switzerland, France or Belgium, but I did succeed eventually.
   Another interesting search was in Holland. I didn't know if the Dutch made chocolate, so I asked my host, Jos. He said there was a good brand called Droste, and that it was made in his hometown. I wrote down the name and went looking for it in the supermarkets. I found a box, bought it, and subsequently found it to be delicious. The sequel: I now notice that practically every airport Duty Free shop that I pass sells Droste chocolate.
   (PS: American chocolate is useless.)
2. I have over 25 shot glasses from Hard Rock Cafes around the world, almost all of which were bought by me. The three that weren’t (Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Singapore) were from places that I had previously visited. That’s the rule: only from places that I have visited. A friend of mine went to Lisbon on holiday and offered to buy me a shot glass, but I declined her generous offer as I’ve never been there.
3. I haven’t owned a car for the past five years. In fact, I’ve only driven on two occasions since 2003. Give it up for public transport in Europe and Asia (and a smaller carbon footprint pour moi)!
4. I became a fan of the San Antonio Spurs without knowing where San Antonio even was. Actually, I became a fan of David Robinson during the 1992 Olympics and decided to support the team for which he played, which happened to be the San Antonio Spurs. Good decision.
5. I will hardly ever print on one side of the paper. If the printer has a duplex setting, I will use that. If it doesn’t, I will feed the paper by hand so that I can print on both sides of the paper. My little way of giving some love back to the trees.
6. I seem to enjoy movies set in France. Charade, To Catch a Thief, the Pink Panther movies, Ronin, The Transporter…heck, I even started to like Mr. Bean after watching Mr. Bean’s Holiday ("O Mio Babbino Caroooooo…").

And now for the good part: tagging people. Well, I'm tagging people without checking if they've been tagged previously or not. If you have, now you have extra reason to get on with it. I tag:

• Alina
• Bobbie
• Christy
• Dave
• Erica
• Jill F (This is the closest I could get to F)

100 Things I've Done, or Not Done

I've seen this list on a couple of blogs recently, and I thought I'd have a shot at it. (Items in red indicate the things that I have done, some with a few clarifications.)
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (not exactly painted, but sketched in pencil...I'm counting it)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (no, but I've been on television)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China (only a restaurant of that name with a great buffet)
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia (had a stopover at Moscow airport once)
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (bought a ton in the past, particularly the Trefoils)
62. Gone whale watching (only in my dream...no, really, I did have a dream that I was watching the whales)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (it's on the list)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (too bad no footage of this exists...it was ace!)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (well, my name has been in a published book, with my contribution clearly acknowledged...I'm claiming credit)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Book of Mormon or Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Dead Sea
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Tagged: 8 Things

I was tagged, in a general way, by Tiffany. Here goes:

8 Favorite TV Shows:

• M*A*S*H
• Blackadder
• Fawlty Towers
• Monty Python’s Flying Circus
• Midsomer Murders
• Without a Trace
• Good Eats
• Strictly Come Dancing

8 Things I did yesterday:

• Went caroling
• Received an unexpected Christmas present all the way from Australia
• Ate out
• Skipped dinner as I had so many snacks during caroling
• Read a project document
• Chatted with a friend in the US
• Wrote out some Christmas cards
• Sent e-mails

8 Things I look forward to:

• Understanding all the settings on my camera — the day will come!
• President Obama’s inauguration
• Getting through the books of Moses without experiencing mental exhaustion (task for 2009)
• My next trip abroad
• Finishing Michael Porter’s “Competitive Advantage of Nations” (750+ pages long, and no murders anywhere!)
• The Wurtzbachers returning to Chennai — they’ve promised to bring me a jar of Wal-mart peanut butter
• My next date ;-)
• Dinner!

8 Favorite Restaurants:

• Sangeetha (the one in Adyar, Chennai)
• Freebird’s (College Station, Texas)
• La Costenita (Corpus Christi, Texas)
• The Butter Churn (Sinton, Texas)
• Madras Pavilion (Houston, Texas)
• Acme Oyster House (New Orleans, Lousiana)
• Blackeyed Pea (for their meatloaf)
• Jason’s Deli (for their Reuben sandwich) And special props to the fish & chip shop on New Street in Birmingham--saved my life more than once!

8 Things on my wish list:

• Another trip to Temple Square
• Liverpool winning their 19th League title
• Visiting Palmyra, New York
• Being able to afford an external flash for my camera — those things are pricey!
• Trident cinnamon-flavoured chewing gum
• A PhD
• A skydiving trip in Europe
• A reunion with Steve and his family

Am I supposed to tag someone? Well, I'll tag whoever hasn't done this list, yet.

What I wouldn't do for this man...

Entering the current English Premier League season, Rafa Benítez was working on a few unwanted streaks in the EPL. In his previous four seasons as manager of my beloved Liverpool Football Club, Rafa's teams hadn't a) beaten Manchester United, b) beaten a Steve Bruce-managed team, or c) scored at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea (and naturally, hadn't won any of those matches). Nothing suggested that Liverpool would end any of those streaks this season either.

Let's recap the events of the season so far:

a) 13 September 2008: I was making my way back down the Nilgiri hills from Ooty. Meanwhile at Anfield, Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-1.

b) 18 October 2008: I was taking a rather sombre and melancholy walk around Koregaon Park neighbourhood in Pune, trying to sort out a few things in my head. Meanwhile at Anfield, Dirk Kuyt scored a last-gasp winner as Liverpool beat Steve Bruce's Wigan 3-2.

c) 26 October 2008: I was enjoying the hospitality of an old family friend in Goa, feasting on his wife's delicious Goan prawn curry and chicken shakoothi. Meanwhile at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool ended Chelsea's 86-game home unbeaten streak, 1-0.

Sense a pattern? I'm out of town, Liverpool end a dubious streak. And of course I take all the credit. However, if Rafa expects me to head out of town everytime Liverpool have a tough match...I'll, um, think about it.

This is true love - you think this happens every day?

;-)

Flying Solo

Due to a couple of unfortunate developments, I found myself rather alone on my trip Pune and Goa, both literally and figuratively.

Pune wasn't too bad, being full of long days commuting an hour to the new office on the other side of town and eight-hour training sessions. Mind-numbing days like those have a way of sapping one's energy to the point that you don't think too much about what you thought were well-laid plans going completely awry due to the decisions of others.

Goa, on the other hand, was different. This was supposed to be a family holiday, but Dad fell ill right before he and Mum were to leave Chennai for Goa (we still don't know exactly what's ailing him, but we suspect it is something mosquito-borne). So there I was, in India's major tourist-trap, with a blank agenda to be filled by moi, and I wanted to do something spectacular.













I think I did alright.

By way of explanation, I went parasailing on Colva Beach. The guys who operate the ride send up someone with you to manipulate the parachute, and they send upto two people on a ride. My co-passenger was a Swiss tourist named Andrea, whose husband wanted no part of it. His loss.

Oh, and that's one item off my Bucket List. Yes, I know I said "hang gliding", but that was a generic term for flying in a non-aeroplane, non-helicopter way for a change. (Yes, I've ridden in a helicopter, but that was before I developed my Bucket List. Ergo, it didn't have to make it on the list.)

PS: Para-sailing was awesome.

Farewell...for a while

I'll be away from Chennai for two and a half weeks starting this Sunday afternoon. I'm going to be in Pune for two working weeks (and the weekend in between) for some internal training at work, and then, I will be in Goa for three days on vacation with my folks.

I haven't been to Goa for far too long, and I am interested in seeing how the Goans celebrate the Indian festival of Deepavali. I hope there are some spectacular firework displays while I am there.

A different location this weekend

There may be no long-term change on the GPS for a while, but there will be a short-term one this weekend. Tonight, I'm off to the picturesque town of Ooty (actually it is Udhagamandalam, but the British couldn't make it past Ootacumund, and this in turn led to its common nickname Ooty).

I am meeting a friend at the bottom of the Nilgiri hills, and we are going to travel up in the scenic Nilgiri Mountain Railway, which was conferred the status of a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005. I haven't done this train journey since I was a kid, and my friend, being an American fairly new to these parts, has never done this trip, so we anticipate a fun time for all.

If the photos turn out well, I'll post them here next week.

I hope everyone else enjoys their own weekends.

Staying put for a while

I just heard that the project in the UK for which we had bid at the end of July was awarded to another company, which means that I won't be taking any international flights in the near future. Pity. Thanks to everyone for your good wishes and prayers.

Movement on the GPS

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...but I'm not leaving on a jet plane.

I'm off to Bangalore tonight with the singles and I will be back on Sunday morning. A good time is anticipated by all, even though the weather forecast for our destination is rain tomorrow and more the following day.

The only drawback is that I'm going to miss the start of Liverpool's Champions League campaign tonight as I'll be on the train to Bangalore, and the miss of their English Premier League (EPL) campaign as I'll be on the train from Bangalore. As they usually do better when I'm not watching as opposed to when I am cheering them on, I should be okay.

See you later.

The GPS is buzzing...

Let me recap the events of the past three weeks.

Three weeks ago on Tuesday, I got a phone call from my line manager alerting me to the fact that our company was in an advanced stage of bidding for a project with a big multi-national in the UK, and that my name had been submitted for one of the lead roles in the project team. That's always good to know.

The next day, I was contacted by one of the proposal team and given a few more details. The day after that (Thursday), he called me up and asked if I was ready to go to London for the proposal defence the following Thursday. I replied that I was ready, willing, but not quite able as I didn't have a visa. I was told to take care of that situation. By Friday, all my papers were ready. On Monday, they were submitted and my fingerprints recorded (that's the rule when applying for visas to the US and some western European countries now), but the visa was not expected at the earliest by Thursday, which would be a day too late. No matter, we had done our best.

Monday and Tuesday resulted in ridiculously late telephone meetings (19:00-21:00 Indian Standard Time to give our boys in London a convenient time to attend), in addition to numerous other calls during the day.

On Tuesday night the decision was made that I would cancel the plans to go to London (even if I could have made it in time for the meeting, I'd have been too jet lagged to be even a pretty face at the presentation), and instead I went to company HQ in Hyderabad along with my line manager (he flew in from Pune), and we took the telephone call with one of the company's big chiefs.

I handled part of the presentation, even though it was by telephone and I couldn't see what was happening at the client's office. I had to trust our men in London to make sure that the correct slides were being shown when I spoke. Then there was a longish (and sometimes pointless) Q&A session, after which I raced off to catch the shuttle bus to the airport and returned home to Chennai shortly after midnight.

I think the presentation went very well and that there were no major mistakes made. The client's decision is expected shortly. If we win the project, and the client approves of my selection in the role nominated by my company, then I'll be off "home" to England for a year, possibly two, with the probability of travelling to some of the client's other sites around the world.

I didn't intend to post this with the outcome still in doubt, but it occurs to me that most of my loyal and rabid readers have a pretty good habit of diligent prayer, and if any of them would care to add my name to their list for the next few days and nights, it can only help my chances.

In return, you will get more super-exciting blog posts from yet another hip and happening place in the world, possibly more. How can you pass up a bargain like that?!

Take my breath away

One of the great joys of travelling is that, every once in a while, I come across something so unexpectedly amazing, that it takes my breath away and I am left to marvel at what I have seen.

While some of the things that have caused this effect in me are things you may expect to do so (I won't give them away right away - I will need them for blog posts in the future), the latest entry in this list was most unexpected.

It was the new airport in Hyderabad.

That's right, I was stunned by the beauty of an airport. And, mind you, is coming from someone who has taken flights to and from the likes of Singapore's Changi, London's Heathrow (not Terminal 5, however) and Amsterdam's Schipol (which actually has a small annex containing paintings on loan from the Rijksmuseum).

What's so special about Rajiv Gandhi International Airport? Well, it is an absolutely top-notch airport...in India. India is known for a lot of fine things, but great airports aren't on that list. Mumbai's airport is a depressing and decaying place. And I've been in sports stadiums bigger than Chennai's airport.

Hyderabad, on the other hand, is fantastic. The terminal is bright, clean and comfortable bordering on the luxurious. The landscaping outside the airport is so imaginative, that if I lived in Hyderabad, I'd go there on a picnic. I'm not kidding.

It isn't perfect, though. The food choice is pretty limited compared to other world-class airports, though the gelato shop had an excellent flavour called "Blue Sky"...and there isn't a McDonald's!

The late Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, is so fortunate to have such a splendid structure named after him.

The GPS was pointing elsewhere

As the alleged purpose of this blog is to keep you informed of my whereabouts, I should tell you that I spent Thursday in Hyderabad, the twin city of Secunderabad, the place of my birth, on company business.

I spent the first two years of my life in Secunderabad, before moving away (this business of me being almost constantly on the move started pretty early in life) due to Dad being transferred. I returned to Secunderabad when I turned nine, and lived there for four years before another transfer took us home to Chennai, which has remained the family base ever since.

In the intervening 23 years, Hyderabad has changed a lot. The office where I spent yesterday is in a locality that used to be rather sleepy. Not now. The place is so busy, that the only reference to sleep is people chasing their dreams with one of the many high-tech companies that have offices there. It was quite an eye-opening experience.

I was gone for only 24 hours, but for those of my vast and adoring international readership who think that the day is just a bit dull without a new entry of my blog, it would have seemed much longer. You can all sleep easier tonight.

Fashion tips for high fliers

I had meant to write this post before I left Doha, but now I have a second person to add some (arbitrary and unsubstantiated) weight to my point of view, so I can now appear more authoritative.

* * *

The resemblance between the real me and my passport photograph is rather superficial (sorry, there is no chance that I will post the actual photo on the Internet), and at times I am amazed that airport officials let me through without a second glance. They are either highly trained and can spot key similarities between the real me and the photograph, or they are extremely blase and couldn't care less what I do in their country. I hope it is the former.

However, a description of the clothes I wear when flying could be easily circulated around the airports of the world ought to suffice as proof of my identity and assure any doubtful airport staff that I am who I claim to be, because, I believe, I have worn pretty much the same clothes while taking a flight for the past four years.

There is a method to the consistency: I wear the heaviest of everything I own.

The heaviest shoes (usually sneakers).

The heaviest trousers (a pair of jeans).

The heaviest shirt (my Liverpool polo shirt).

The heaviest jacket (that won't cause me to melt).

And in my hand, I carry the heaviest book that I am carrying, and if possible (and if applicable), my camera.

Why? Because airlines will weigh your baggage, but they do not weigh the passenger.

There you have it: my method for shaving a few hundred grams off my baggage weight. And the method agrees with this guy's rules: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24281719/.

Debut from Pune

I have arrived in Pune without too much difficulty. No lost luggage, no fines for excess baggage (fortunately emotional baggage does not count), no delay in the flight, no unpleasant weather.

Having said that, a three hour flight that starts at 1:00 a.m. in the local time of the destination city is a pretty lousy flight. There's no time to sleep as they serve a meal at a ridiculous time of night, and unless you take this flight on the weekend, you'll be a zombie at work. Fortunately, I was given permission to stay in (I am staying with my friends, the Johnsons) and I got some sleep in the late morning.

Now, it's time to head off to bed for a proper night's rest.

In a holding pattern

It is nearly midnight on Friday. Why am I blogging in Doha? Aren't I supposed to be on a plane back to India? Yes, I am. Unfortunately, not for the first time in my life, I have issues with immigration which has delayed my departure by at least 48 hours.

For those who are keeping count, this is the fifth country with whom I've had visa/immigration problems (only one of which was not resolved within a few days). The countries on the Honour Roll:

1. The United States of America
2. Germany
3. Spain
4. Denmark
5. Qatar

You'd think they'd recognise a world renowned traveller when they see his passport, but nooooooo...

Reflections on Doha

I came to Doha, the capital of Qatar, on a training project on September 1, 2007. Originally I was scheduled to be here only till December, but the project was extended twice and it ends only this week. Overall it has been a great experience. Here are a few highlights:

• Doha is generally hot, dry and dusty. It’s the desert; what did you expect?

• Because Doha is hot and dry for most of the year, there is no heating in buildings, and not much by way of insulation. Consequently, during the few weeks of “winter”, apartments become bitterly cold. Stores do a roaring business (sorry, accidental humour) in space heaters.

• Although it hot, dry and dusty, it doesn’t mean that there is no greenery at all. There are patches of grass, trees and flowers where some people have worked very hard (and others have spent a lot of money).

• Whatever rain Doha gets is in the winter. And when the rain falls, it falls heavily.

• Having said all this, Doha has very pleasant weather for about six months (Oct – Dec; Feb – Apr) in the year. That’s not a bad average.

• When I first landed in Chicago (in ’93), the friend who picked me up from O’Hare told me that there are two seasons in the Windy City: winter…and “Under Construction”. By his definition, there is only one season in Doha: the city is permanently under construction.

• Qatar is a small country. It takes an hour to travel from the east coast to the west coast, and not a whole lot longer to travel from north to south. When the highway construction is completed, the travel time will be even less.

• The first impression I had of Doha when I got here was that it was McAllen, Laredo or any of the small cities along the Rio Grande river in Texas…on steroids. The same dusty environment, the same shades of brown everywhere, the same relatively new and broad roads…and the same excess of gas-guzzling 4x4s. The only difference is that there are more SUVs than pickups here compared to South Texas.

• Petrol/gasoline here is about $0.75 per gallon. (That still doesn’t excuse the number of SUVs here.)

• Bottled water is about $1.00 per gallon.

• Milk is about $5.00 per gallon.

• Almost all the food is imported, much of it from Saudi Arabia. A lot of the processed food comes from the UAE.

• The most useless way of specifying your location: “I’m next to the mosque.” Which mosque? They’re on every block.

• Driving can be a major hassle here during rush hours. Still, even with the traffic snarls, it rarely seems to take more than 30 minutes to get to a destination.

• Most of the locals here drive like they are drunk. They are not drunk. So what’s their excuse?!

• The two major foreign ethnic groups here are the Indians (which I did not find surprising) and Filipino (which I did find surprising).

• Under the right circumstances, I wouldn’t mind getting a full-time job here. Doha has been kind to me.

The GPS starts warming up

It is time to pack up my bags (and suitcase) again and move.

I’ll be leaving Doha on Friday night and landing in Mumbai in the early morning on Saturday. I’ll make my way to Pune that morning, and I’ll be there for 3-4 days, and then my company intends to transfer me to one of the Chennai offices. Which means that I will finally have a job in my hometown for the first time.

So if you’ve got all that, the blog is doing its job.

Cultural oddities - Club soda

As I go to different countries (or even the same countries at different years), I usually find something different and unusual that I cannot always explain. For instance, here in Qatar, practically every corner store has a shelf of cans of club soda, alongside the usual soft drinks. It is easier to find club soda here than it is in the US, UK or India, where people have an excuse for requiring club soda to mix with their alcohol. Qatar, on the other hand, is mostly dry. Alcohol can be bought, but only after a laborious application process. So what do Qataris do with so much club soda?