Heathrow

10-Jan-10, 8:15 AM

Heathrow Airport 

London.

 

19 hours have gone since I stepped out of the house, and I am just half way of my destination. The trip till now has been quite eventful with new standards for high stress being set. Right from getting the tickets, booking the hotel and renting a car in US, renting a cab to get to Mumbai airport, the arrival of the cab and the condition of cab whoo the list just seems endless!!!

To describe in short the woes, my tickets arrived in my hand just the night before I left that is on the 9^th Jan. Well the only advantage of waiting so long was that I got tickets for business class from Mumbai to London, lucky me!!! But they were just the tickets, no hotel booking and no rental car booking. We had planned, oh yes we as in my parents, Nabha’s parents, Nabha and meJ, to leave the house by 5:00 PM. The clock was showing 2:00 PM and no signs of any arrangement being made for me in US. Finally I decided not to wait for my dear company to take care of me and do that my self. I made weeks reservation for hotel and car, took the print out and headed back to home. Within 5 mins I got a call on my cell from the GTD saying “oh! I was about to make reservations for you” Well I wanted to ask, why so early, you could have waited till 20^th Feb!!! but I knew it wasn’t the time for this. So I asked her to go ahead and make the bookings and I will cancel my reservations… So finally at around 3 PM I had everything in place.

Now it was time to check the status of cab. We called up the guy Ravi and to everyone’s surprise or rather shock, he said he had just left Dombivli, which meant he will reach Pune by 6:00 PM. We already started to see the plan going out of schedule!!! Finally after too many anxious moments the cab arrived at around 7:15 PM. We immediately loaded the entire luggage and set for the trip to Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai!!! The cab condition looked pathetic, later we realized it was not just pathetic but also dangerous. As we sped on through the express highway, the cab was all filled with some fumes which made it difficult to breathe and also caused eye irritation. Finally with all the sufferings we made it to the Mumbai airport. We reached the airport at around 11:20, so it was immediately time to say alvida.

Well that was the part which I never wanted to happen, but knew it is going to happen. My sweet sweet honey might have shed so many tears from the time she came to know about my visit. As the time for my departure came closer, the frequency went on higher. Dada waived me good bye with a “Good son, I am proud of you” expression, Aai with “Take care, I am waiting to see you back soon” expression, Pappa with “Go ahead, don’t worry about anything” expression and Mamma with “Take care, travel carefully, eat well” expression. My sonu was with please don’t go… I will miss you so much, but I know you will have to go, but please keep calling me and come back soon, why are you leaving me behind, …… expression!!! Things get pretty difficult especially while parting off.

I had suddenly become all alone, my mind wasn’t actually ready to switch over, but then I had too. I went ahead did the x-ray scanning, went and stood in the AI counter for checking in and collecting the boarding pass. The person on the counter said, oh are you traveling by business class? I said yes. He said why you don’t go to any of the business class check in counters. I asked “where is the queue for that?” He replied, there is no queue sir! Go to first 3 counters, they are meant for business class passengers, you will get a lounge pass from there. I was like uuhh ok, thank you!!! Well I always knew there was a separate queue for business class passengers, but I guess the switch over wasn’t yet complete. I made my way through the crowd to the counter. I gave my Passport, ticket print out. I confirmed whether my luggage will reach the final destination (RDU) or will I need to collect and recheck in at the Heathrow airport? She said sir you will get it at the RDU airport. That was the first comforting thing I had heard w.r.t. to my trip in last couple of days. I was so glad that I left the counter after collecting my boarding pass, without collecting my passport!!! (Or was it still the pending switch over??? Honestly I don’t know!!!). The lady at the counter shouted, Sir!!! Your passport… I said oops… I forgot. I rushed again to the counter, she completed a customs form for me (only business class passengers get this facility, economy class need to fill there own forms… anyways, this was the start of comparison in what I would have been doing and what I was doing). I then went and submitted the customs form to the customs official, moved and got through the security check, and finally settled down at the “Maharaja” lounge – for first class and business class passengers… I then made few calls, and had to take the rescue remedy as per the instruction received from top authority ;-). I was getting pretty relaxed now. Finally the boarding call for AI 131 was made. I moved to the flight and the air hostess aunty took me to my seat. The seat was amazing, I mean apart from the ample leg space, the seat was a complete machine, as in there was a outer fixed structure and a movable seat inside. The seat could be moved electronically, like with press of buttons!!! As I got settled in the seat, the pilot announced that due to technical snag in the conveyer belt all the luggage was still not in the aircraft and it would take 20 mins more for the take off. Finally the place took off at 3:00 AM IST. I was feeling a bit hungry now. The refreshments came in at around 4:00 AM IST. He offered me a non – vegetarian cuisine, when I said veg, he was like oh but there was no meal request given for this seat number, but I will get you the veg refreshment, he brought in the veg refreshment and said, I am sorry sir, but these are the economy class sandwiches, always remember to give the meal preferences while booking the tickets is all what he had to say. But I couldn’t tell him that in the email which I sent to GTD I had clearly mentioned “Indian veg” as food preference. I wonder what I will get on the American airlines flight… Anyways the economy class sandwiches were as filling as any other food. To add to it there were business class fruit dish a sweet dish (which I didn’t eat. Why??? Come on it was 4:00 AM!!!!) Finally after finishing the meal, I went to the loo came back and pressed the seat button to make it as flat as a bed and went to bed… This was the best part of being in the business class. You can actually lie down on your seat. After waking up, I had my breakfast, didn’t finish it up completely though and then finally landed at the Heathrow airport. I switched on my cell phone with the sim brother had recharged for international roaming. I gave him a missed call, got a message from him saying, cool… Then before I could call honey I received a missed call from her, to which I replied back promptly with a missed call and she re-replied with a smsJ. I tried calling father, but couldn’t connect, but I am sure he must be aware that I have reached London. Finally I cleared all the security checks, sat at a place started writing this, took a break ate two dashmis, and went to collect my boarding pass. After collecting the boarding pass, I roamed around for a while at the airport and sat down and finally completing this blog straight from Heathrow airport, London, UK

Visit to Kiran Kaka

Visit to Kiran Kaka!!!

 

Visiting anyone has always caused me upset stomach characterized with heavy nausea for food, and visiting someone always means you have to have food. Well I know this is a unique problem, but offcourse I am unique too ;). So most of the invitations are responded by denial; because no one can digest the fact of having visitors and letting them go without having food. But this was a different invitation; it came from someone very near and dear to Nabha – Krian Kaka.

 

So as soon as I knew that we were going to his place on Saturday, I started up with my preparations. Oh! Are you thinking about preparations on what to wear and what not to wear types??? No no no... My preparation is different... it’s more of mental preparation, like – oh come off it Bhartesh, everybody eats outside, everybody can eat in a group - to – human is a social animal, you have to socialize, eating is not that important always!!! What is important is meeting people... ok now take a deep breath and relax; everything is going to be alright. This has been what I go through almost every time when I have to visit someone and this has been going on since, say, 8-9 years now... aab aur kya dookhada soonaoo tumko!!!

 

Finally ‘the day’ came. Though it was a Saturday, I had my office (to compensate for the additional holiday given for Anant Chaturdashi) and my wifey had the clinic as usual. Usually I drop and pick her up on Saturdays but since I had my office my brother did that job. And yes there was also this funny incident that happened that day. I went with my brother to pick her up. On the way one of us (who – is not disclosed since that’s a secret for my confused wifey) called her up and said we are stuck in traffic and will be little late – which was true!!! Finally when we reached there, I switched my seat and went to back seat and bent down so as to hide myself from being visible. I wanted to give her a surprise (or rather scare her when she sits in the car – but surprise is what I have told her J). But at the same time wifey had different plans... she had told Laxmi and Dr Poonam that my hubby is coming and you can meet him today. Since I was hiding, all three of them didn’t notice me and they thought ‘well next time’!!! But when Nabha came to sit in the car she saw me and shouted back at Lax and Dr Poo, hey he is here, hiding behind the seat!!! And I came out with a face as if someone caught me doing something wrong. Well the seemingly exciting plan was a dud the next moment. “Kshanat hote sambhava sare kshanapurviche asambhav!!!”

 

Well, so we returned home discussing who the caller was!!! And it’s still a mystery!!! After coming back, I didn’t go back to office since I decided to take a half day off from work as I had to go to Kiran Kaka’s place. We relaxed for some time (which was very necessary for me) after having a late lunch. Finally it was the time to leave for the visit. I popped in few homeopathic pills, ate phakda (mouth freshener) did whatever I could to make myself (or rather my stomach) feel relaxed (<censored> even attended last minute natures call </censored>). With wifey in the navigator’s seat we started driving. With some help from pedestrians we reached our final destination.

 

As we passed the bungalow gate (I located the parking spot just ahead of the gate) we could see Kiran kaka and other family members waiting eagerly to welcome us. It really felt so nice!!! I parked the car and we entered their bungalow. We were welcomed in to the house and I settled down in to one corner of a sofa, next to the chair where kiran Kaka sat. Well though Nabha had assured me that she had already spoken to Krian Kaka and it was mutually agreed upon just “Tea” I still had butterflies in my stomach. As the time passed we started talking and discussing on few general topics. Since the road by which we had come was recently turned in to one way, we had to find another road to go back. Uday Kaka and Kiran Kaka helped us identify the best possible route. Then Kiran Kaka even drew a rough map from his place to a road Nabha knew (well my knowledge of roads and my skills in remembering them could be another topic for a blog so let it be left un-discussed here). Then was the time for eat-eat!!! But by this time with all the talking (and drinking water) I was feeling a bit relaxed. Looking at the menu made me feel more relaxed. There were apple cuts, cake and shev puri. Kaka and Fai had taken really good care to make me feel comfortable. Then within some time all the butterflies flew out of my stomach as more space was being made for the delicious food. I was now feeling very comfortable there, chatting with everyone and eating everything J... It was only because of Kakas and Fais that I became so comfortable so fast, and offcourse because of my wifey who was taking very good care of me. We were having a really nice time out there and suddenly it was time to leave!!! Nabha introduced me to all of the family members – Uday Kaka, Kiran Kaka, Sucheta Fai, Sunanada Fai and Sandhya Fai (I know this was the first step taken last but considering the situation this was found to be most fit). We bid adieu to all of them and started back on our return journey. The navigator this time was the map Kiran Kaka had drawn for us and wifey was doing a good job in reading it out for me.

 

We reached home, shared our experiences with everyone and that was the end to an exciting Saturday

Computer headsets for phone - I have heard this before

Computer headsets for phone – I have heard this before!!!

 

Well finding the raw material is getting as difficult as finding the finished product itself... I mean I thought RJ9 connector and atleast 3.5mm audio connecter should have been easily available in the electronic stores but no!!! I think I am looking in all the wrong stores probably. Being in Pune for so many years now (ummn 4 yrs) I had expected that I know where I can get what but certainly I don’t meet my expectations... However this seems to be a good learning for me, I seem to have one more activity for myself – find best places in Pune for getting various stuffs. Such a hard work!!! But they (those who follow sun signs) say Capris have an inherent liking for hard work and that’s the only way I prove that I am hard working J

And yes... have my office on Saturday so no hopes on my mission this weekend (ummm what was that... oh yeah – finding best places in Pune uhh or computer headsets... whatever!!!)

 

Hey what about Sunday??? – ek din tto aaram karne do bhai!!!

Computer headsets for Phone

Computer headsets for Phone!!

 

Well the heading for the blog is my new project... It has been few weeks (or months) that my brother is searching a headset for his fixed (or landline) phone in office. I thought this thing should be easily available, but much to my surprise and dejection, it is not “easily” available!!!

 

Many days passed by without any more thought on this, but then I must, or rather my brother must thank recession that I have lots of free time in my office because of which I did some research on this topic.

 

Well after all the googling, an idea just sneaked in to my mind – making an adaptor which can allow a computer headset to be used with phone!!! So there it is... I will be looking for all the required stuff today and put the thought to execution. Yes off course I will blog as to what I did (if I do that is... J) and the results... (Unless I think of keeping this as a trade secret – ummn, this is a business prospect too, what say????)

 

Bonding -- The wrong way

Bonding... The wrong way!!!

 

How does it feel when an organization for which you have been working for more than 4 years asks you to sign a 6 months Rs 50K bond for 4 days training??? I feel sorry... Sorry for the organization and more sorry for myself. Sorry for organization because it displays the acme of lack of confidence. By lack of confidence I don’t mean lack of confidence in the employee, but lack of confidence in itself. If an organization has to depend on a bond for making an employee stay with the organization then what else can it be than lack of confidence and if it does so for a loyal employee who is almost 5 yrs old in the organization then it’s the peak of it. The organization speaks of damages that might occur if an employee being trained leaves the organization... I ask what about the 5 years of profit that the organization made from that employee??? I disagree this to be a fair deal.

Ok... why I feel sorrier about myself??? Knowing this for 5 years I am still with the same organization. I don’t want to blame anyone else than myself!!!

 

Cary Diwali Festival

14. October. 06

It was 9:00 AM and I was still in the bed just too reluctant to come out of my blanket. Till now the temperature here was quite supportive, I mean it was kind of pleasant with the clothes I wore. But today suddenly it was chilling outside (my blanket) so my body was just against of leaving the armour, but then today there was this event "Carry Diwali Festival".

The program was to start by 11:00 AM. We (prasad and myself) had planned to catch a bus at 9:00 AM so that we reach the stop in 30-40 minutes and the place "Amphitheater -- where the function was organized" was about 20-mins walk from the stop. We were actually not so keen on touching the location dot on time, but we were planning to take some pics of the place around there. If you ask me the whole of cary is photogenic, its a beautiful place if you like greenary. It has huge tress around and roads in between them. When I first landed up in this place my reaction was, oh do people stay here.. I mean it was so unlike a city it looked like more of a beautiful forest... But that was all planning, and me with still in bed this planning was far from reality. Though Prasad was awake when I decided to peep out of my blanket, he was quite busy with my laptop. I streched myself out for another 15-20 mins in the bed and then finally made the hard decision... wake up, got a exciting day ahead!!!!

After getting up I immediately took some sun bath by opening the blinds of kitchen door, and then had my breakfast, went for the shower and again my body fell in love with the hot water but somehow I managed to come out in half hour. After coming out of the bathroom was the next hard decision to make (awhh.. the day started with full of hard decisions umm..) what am I going to wear??? I was already in to the dream world thinking of the indian crowd (u can read it as beautiful girls...) that I might have a chance to see (meet would be an exaggeration I guess...) so then finally I wore what you see in the photographs and thanks for all the compliments in advance!!! Till the time both of us got ready it was already 11:00 AM and finally both of us walked off the house for a day which we hoped to be one of the best ones in USA.

We had almost reached the stop that we saw the bus coming, so we had to sprint a bit to reach the stop but with the energy we had it wasnt that difficult. We were bubbling with so much of enthusiasum that we started our photo session right in the bus.

We reached the stop and started walking towards the destination and offcourse with camera rolling at top frequecny. We thought to take a different road, than the one which we knew would surely take us to the place. This other road was not the main road and so was more picturesque which meant more photos. On our journey we found a road which went right through the dense trees, so obviously that became our unanimous choice. I really enjoyed that route but then after 15-20 mins of walking we started to realise that we have missed our direction!!! after exploring the beautiful road, which took us to one garden, for some more time we decided to turn back. By now we were bit tired but my moral was high... Photography was almost stopped and we were now rushing towards the destination.

Finally we reached the Amphitheater by 2 or 2:30 PM. With lot of expectations and all funny thoughts in mind I entered through the gate. The place was huge, it had a big stage and many rows of chairs in front of it. There was a big lawn starting from where the chairs ended. There was also a kind of wooden mezzanine. There was a decent crowd (please read this as crowd only :-( ...). I thought must be it was the time, the afternoon which was holding back many in their homes. When we reached, there was already some dance number going on the stage, so we reached a place from where we could easily see the performance and it was not at all difficult to find this place!!! Prasad got back to his photographer role. Though the dance item was easily viewable I was more interested in scanning the place around. I was just trying to see where I can get what!!! In few moments I disccovered the food stalls, there were many stalls on the mezzanine but I couldnt get as to what they were for, and finally I was looking for the crowd for which I had already drawn an imaginary picture!!! Next five minutes I found myself explaining me "look its just the start, dont loose hopes!!" but then I didnt expect such a bad start. Well but then there were few americans in too for the program. So for some time I was a bit busy observing them, just seeing their reaction to the Indian masala going on at the stage. It was fun watching their curious faces (and least bothered faces in some cases!!!). After one more performance was over we decided to sit somewhere. We saw few chairs available and we walked towards them and made ourselves comforatable. Realizing that the best thing for me to see was the stage I forced my mind to appreciate the things on the stage by clapping and saying wow thats great.. but then soon there was one performance by really small kids and they were looking very cute in their costumes. I really enjoyed that one. But then it was already about three and we had to answer our stomach which was crying all the way when we were walking and now it was just screaming... We went to the food stalls which I had already discovered during my initial scan. There were stalls from 4 different restaurants and plenty of Indian dishes. I made my choice quickly, I decided on Samosa plate and Gulab jamoons while Prasad after much thought decided on Masala Dosa. We stood in the queue and finally made to the counter ordered and got our stuff and then stood at one comfortable place and started to gobble. The food was good and I really enjoyed it. After that we were just looking for some place to sit and relax while we can also watch the program. We found some sort of wooden thing which was elevated from ground and some hexagonal in shape.. it was like designed to sit. So we sat on it and in few seconds the next performance started with some heavy beats.. It was then we realized that the wooden thing was a sort of cover to cover the speakers. And I could feel all the vibrations through my bottom to my head... a funny thought just passed by my mind.. oh is this what "feeling the music" means!!! But since there was no better place to sit (the lawn was wet, chairs were full) and even more because it was a sort of free massage we decided to sit there. Prasad told me that somehow he didnt like the function, I dont know what made him say that, but I was enjoying it. After few regular desi songs and remixes there was one show which was moulded to this years theme "Vividhata- Unity in Diversity". It was the best show so far. There were these small kids who came in and then sung (the song was offcourse pre recorded) something like "My name is shamsher and I am from Ajmer, I speak urdu but i am just like you" and this was done for the cities in all the states, all in all it was very good. After few more shows we decided to move on to the lawn and closer to the stage. By now the crowd (You can decide on what to read it this time!!!) had really started to flow in. Most of the beautifull things were either with their husbands or with their Brothers (now thats a more positive and optimistic way to look at it :-).... ). The comparer (the female one) had some misconceptions about the use of micro phone. I guess she felt its micro so I need to shout more.. but in reality she was tearing away the ear drums of many innocent people. While we were standing I heard somebody call my name. It was Vishwesh. Vishwesh is the only Indian in our office and he is just great. I mean he is so helpful like a God.. He helped me whenever I needed it and that too without waiting for me to ask for it and I am truly from my heart grateful to him for all of it. He was there with his wife, mother-in-law and a very cute little daughter "Disha". Disha mixes up very well with me and even I like playing with her. Its always a fun playing with small kids... When I met Vishwesh at the function she was sleeping but with the screaming beauty comparing the show Disha wasnt so lucky to have that peaceful nap and soon she woke up. The crowd () now kept sweeping in and the programs were also now going in full swing with more adults on the stage. Overall the enjoyment levels were going high. For sometime I played with Disha and then went to see those stalls on the mezzanine. With most of the ladies around the first stall I got a rough idea as to what it would be. There was a jewellery stall first up. We quickly moved through the stalls with least interest in anything. The maximum time for which we stopped at a stall was i guess 2 mins and it was a Hinid - DVDs stall, but then we were quickly out of all the stalls. We just decided to have a walk around the lake which was bordering one side of the amphitheater. The lake was cool, it had very calm water and ducks and some swans or I dont know what they were, which were enjoying in the lake and there were some couples enjoying outside it (and I dont know why I was singing the song Dhua dhua dhua dhua dhua dhua dhua hi dhua... and that too just this line). After this Prasad was feeling thirsty and I wanted to see an exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi and for this both of us had to reach the opposite side of the place. So we walked across and decided a spot where we will meet after we finish our activities. I went in to see the exhibition. The exhibition was very comprehensive. It displayed Gandhijis photos from his childhood till his death bed. Every photo had a detailed explanation below. It was very crowded inside and to my surprise most of the people seeing the exhibits were americans and they were just keenly reading all the description which I read only first two and last two words. So I was obviously much faster than them and overtook almost everyone inside and was LIFO (Last in first out). After coming out I met Prasad it was almost 5:45 PM by now and for the first time we spoke about our return plan, we had the last bus at 7:15 PM from the place which would take 20 mins walk from the amphitheater. So anyhow we had to leave the function by 6:45 PM. But then there was one "Air show" as they called it, to be performed by two professionals. They were going to sort of tie themselves with strings and then hang themselves up from top of the stage and do some dance, like Krish I guess!!! And infact this was the main attraction this time which they were announcing time and again. But there seemed no signs of that getting started soon. All other dance items were over and the DJ was playing lots of hindi song. We were sure of missing the fireworks (the most strange thing to miss on diwali) because it was at some 8:00 PM but were hoping to atleast getting a starting glimpse of the air show. I just called up vishwesh to check up whether he has left for home or still there. He was still there and we again met him. Again did some masti with Disha and Prasad the photographer stood true to his job. It was almost 6:45 and there was no sign of the Air show.. so came the final hard decission of the day, we will have to miss the show. Even Vishwesh and his family was bit tired since they were also here for quite a long time and that too standing for most of the time. So we all decided to leave. And again he was as nice as he is and he offered us to drive down till our bus stop because it was almost touching 7:00 PM. But for that his wife and mother in law would have to wait outside till he drops us and comes back to pick them up. So we were very reluctant for this initially. But, as I told you he is such a great guy, he dropped us to the bus stop.

We boarded the bus and then we found out that we had missed our connecting bus from the train station. But still had another option of catching a differnt bus from Northwoods market. With Prasad with me I rarely care about how to travel and which bus to catch, thats his area of expertise. So we went till Northwoods market and caught that bus, which took us all around the maynard loop, walnut street but most importantly to our home. Yes finally we were back to our home by 9:15 very tired and very very satisfied for me.

Really had a great day. Didnt turn up to what I had dreamt off, but then thats why we call it as a dream isnt it? But this day is indeed one of my best days in USA. Oooh that was a kwel day babes... as I would have said if i was american. (The last word is assuming that I would have had a girl friend atleast if I was an american...)