Fashion

Maybe I am getting too old, but I am not a big fan of this low-waist jeans business.

I was in the Paris airport couple of weeks before, when I saw a young guy, maybe around 18 years old, wearing a jeans which was half way up his thigh !! It was almost on his knees, not even close to the waist !! And he was walking around in his boxer shorts essentially. Why he bothered to wear the pants, I have no idea.

After some googling, I have come to realize that this style is called Sagging, which apparently is a predominantly male fashion.

If this is fashion for the future, things look kind of “low”, don’t you think ?

Economy to Excess

So finally I am in the US of A. If Europe is the land of economy, this is the land of excess. The point hammered into me yet again when I went to the Hertz counter to pick up my hired car

"The car you booked is not available, so we are free upgrading you to a mid range SUV"
"Ok, what would that be ?"
"It is a Ford Explorer"

Ford Explorer ...... Mid-range SUV she says. Really, what would be a full range SUV ? This one itself almost qualifies as a bus !!

Flight into US was also eventful, I flew in the A380 . Plane itself is comfortable. Extra comfortable for me as I was seated in the exit row, with tons of leg room !! However getting into the plane is sort of a night mare. Takes a long long time, imagine 580 people trying to board the flight. And imagine the luggage collection area once you exit from the plane. Not very pleasant, I can tell you that.

Landed in JFK too, loud, dirty, crowded ... Should try and avoid it in the future.

Here for a week only this time, flying back on Saturday. Still some more electronics shopping to do. I am like a kid in candystore when I enter BestBuy. Controlling somehow, the $ x 48 conversion will really hurt when I go back :-)

Swiss expedition

Long time no blog ....

Well, I am in Switzerland now. Locarno to be more specific. Here on a business trip for a week.

A trip that started of well in Bangalore with Air France upgrading me to premium economy. Basically means more leg room, slept very well in the flight after a long long time. Why the airlines can't provide a tad more room in economy class, I don't know. If you are any taller than 5'10'' you would know what I am talking about.

For a change my flight landed 45 mins ahead of time. Unfortunately it meant a 5.5 hour wait in Charles De Gaulle airport. Terminal G is the designated terminal for connection flights to Zurich. Not very big, but still enough room to ensure that people can remain comfortably seated. Something for Frankfurt airport to see and learn.

Swiss railway network is a work of art. Typical itinerary leaves you around 3-7 minutes to catch a connection train. And usually all of them run on time. On this particular occasion, I missed my first connection, caught my second connection , but that got delayed, which caused me to miss my third connection again. But trains run at frequent intervals, so if you miss one, usually you can catch another one in 30 mines or so.

Reached my hotel late evening on Sunday night, only to find that the elevator had broken down. Had to lug my suitcase up 4 level of stairs :-(( Shoulder and Back ache after that. Swiss hotel rooms are .... well, they are economical in terms of size. The door to my room opens in and it just about clears the foot of the bed. Had to struggle to pull my suitcase in through the narrow gap. The feeling of claustrophobia gets amplified in the shower stall. My hands are constantly banging the sides as I am trying to take a shower :(

Had a stroll outside to grab some dinner. Locarno is a tourist destination, so I am faced with this sight of couples everywhere. No one is eating alone, every restaurant is filled with families or couples. Looks very odd if I go in and sit at a table alone. So I hit the McDonald's nearby. Consistent taste around the world - consistently bad, that is. I have no idea why people find this to be tasty food !!

The sights that I saw on the train from Zurich to Locarno were good. Nice mountains, steep valleys, big lakes, mountains again, valleys, lakes, mountains, valleys, lakes …… That is all this whole country has !! But very impressive all the same ...

More on this to follow

Wonderful Wuhan

June 22nd, 2010 : Wuhan, China
If Beijing revived my deeply hidden fear of skyscrapers, Wuhan bumped it up a couple of notches. The city looked every bit as big as Beijing, with insanely tall skyscrapers everywhere.

Courtesy of the late flight from Beijing, we reached there pretty late. Checked into Ramada , they upgraded me to a suite room. Very luxurious. But alas, they had to do this when my time spent in the  hotel was going to < 10 hours :-((

In the morning we ran into couple of Delhi-ites in the hotel lobby. They were from an Indian firm supplying plastic fuel tanks to variety of car manufacturers. They do manufacturing in China. Indian company, manufacturing in China, supplying parts to German and US companies. World is so small …….

The place was called optics valley, I am told that there are like zillions for optics and laser manufacturers in that area.  The “optics valley” comes from Wuhan National Lab for optoelectronics, one of the five national laboratories in China. The Laboratory is managed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), which has about 50,000 students !! A more comprehensive look at this impressive university is found on the following Wikipedia article. Among others, it also house the National Center for High Magnetic fields, another impressive feat of planning and Engineering. When fully commissioned, it can do pulsed fields of up to 80 Tesla, possibly the largest capability in the world

This is another thing that I notice about China, there is no chest thumping or boasting. People are quietly building up world class research, science and engineering facilities. Very focused vision, with loads of government support. There are surely lessons to be learnt from them.

To crisply summarize Wuhan – World class !!

The only downside being the Smog that hangs over the city at all times. You get an acidic sort of smell in your nose all the time too :( Massive urbanization does have its de-merits in terms of air quality.

Left in the evening from Wuhan to Nanjing, my mental image of China as a low cost manufacturing hub has rapidly altered in the past couple of days.

Let us see what Nanjing has in store

Beijng Bites

20th June
12 pm Hong Kong time: I am sitting in the massive Hong Kong airport. The approach for landing offered the most breathtaking view I have see so far from air. The Hong Kong high rise and Harbor are lovely to watch from air.

1 pm : My flight to Beijing is in couple of hours. The airport is definitely a bit warm, I am beginning to sweat slightly. 

6.30 pm : Landed in Beijing, yet another huge airport. I have been forewarned by my colleagues to ask for a hotel pickup. The cab drivers do not understand English well.

7.30 pm : I am finally out of the airport. Beijing is pretty warm. I see a lady holding up a printout with my name. I follow her to the parking lot, which is underground. Surely she won’t be able to drive a car in those heels  ???!!!  Sure enough there is a car waiting for me with a Chauffer. An Audi !! I can play football in the rear seat.

7.40 pm : We are on our way out. Already impressed by the roads. Airport is in the middle of nowhere, I can’t see anything on either side of road. No sign of the infamous Beijing smog as of yet. I am settling a bit apprehensively into my seat, I know that Beijing has lots of skyscrapers. I am mildly scared of them :-( Never been all that comfortable around skyscrapers, I don’t know why

7.55 pm : First wave of skyscrapers hit us, this is not too bad, I can hold on.

8.05 pm : We pass the Bird’s nest stadium in Beijing. Beijing looks massive and with a traffic to match its big city status. Roads look better than in the US. And the driving style worse than in India

9.00 pm : Checked into the hotel, headed out for dinner with a colleague. We go to one of these traditional Chinese places. Menu includes Chicken, beef, pork, fish, soup, noodles and rice. I decline the pork, I sample everything else. The food is very hot, I like it !!

10.30 pm : Back in my room, make a couple of calls home. Internet is not free, scandalous !! Hotel is very nice and comfortable though

21st June

7.30 am : Breakfast is not free either !! Tremendous selection for breakfast. I eat heartily.

8.30 am: We are checked out and ready for our university visit. Our colleague is held up in traffic. He stays only 5 kms away, but has taken him more than 30 mins to reach us.

9.15 am: We reach the university and start our meeting. We are served tea, black, with leaves floating at the bottom of the cup. No milk, no sugar. First sample tastes awful, manage to take in a few mouthfuls. The cup gets refilled at alarmingly regular intervals, Chinese seem to be very caring hosts !!

12.30 pm: We are off for lunch with the faculty. Lunches, I am told, are grand occasions in China. I can see why. Lots of food, wine and talking. Talking is all in Chinese, so I focus on sampling small morsels of everything. Tastes pretty decent, just looks and smells very different from what I am used to seeing everyday. The fish looks as if it has just been dunked in hot water once, almost looks alive :-(( But surprisingly taste is good.

3.00 pm : On our way to Airport, Wuhan is the next destination. Flight is delayed by almost 2 hours. I am deeply engrossed in a book that I picked up at Bangalore airport. Open : An autobiography by Andre Agassi.

Good to be back

Got back today to Bangalore after a two week trip to US with a one day whirlwind trip to Switzerland on the way back. I’m tired of eating fried food and drinking colas, so I celebrated my return with some Spicy chicken tikka and nan :-)

Due to high student traffic to US, I got routed through Paris Airport this time. Paris airport did not disappoint me, very pleasing to the eye, and I don’t just mean architecturally ;-D Lots of places where you can actually stretch out on recliners/couches.

Flew from there to JFK, which was everything Paris was not. Crowded, dirty, annoying announcers screaming on the mike all the time and fairly poor set of directions. This coupled with an apparent lack of Information / help desks ensures that navigating from one terminal to other is not very easy. That is if you can figure out which terminal you landed at in the first place !!

US trip itself was uneventful except for constant struggle with Asthma throughout my trip. I could also chat freely with my friends on the phone without burning a hole in my pocket :)

The other highlight of the trip was a visit to the movie theater after a gap of nearly three years. We watched Final Destination 3D, lots of pretty graphic scenes : that too in crystal clear 3D !! I am done with theaters for another 6 years after this one, a real stinker :(

Switzerland trip was spent mostly in trains in hotels. Couple of glimpses of Switzerland from my train window are below

Interestingly the Swiss hotels are rather ‘economical’ in terms of bathroom space. You can just about fit into the shower stalls and toilets :) I stayed in Hotel Pestalozzi @ Locarno, which did not even have air conditioning the rooms !!

Had my usual share of struggles in all the flights, cramped leg room, fidgety co passengers, awful food and complete lack of sleep :(

But here I am , getting back to blogging after nearly a month !

Hyderabad blues

Just got back to Bangalore after a 2 days business trip in Hyderabad. And I am happy to be back, only when you go away from Bangalore do you realize how awesome the weather here is !! Hyderabad was hot and miserable. And with the same traffic snarls as Bangalore.

What’s with Taj Banjara ? The lake in front of the hotel stinks, I mean proper 5-star rated stink. I wonder how they are running their outdoor restaurants !! No wonder they were offering a 30% discount on food :)

Due to our packed schedule, we did not really get time to taste the Hyderbadi Biriyani. Senior and Daya parceled the biriyani from Paradise and brought it to Bangalore. Apparently it was not good. Hmmm, the taste of hyderbadi biriyani may be just another myth …

And now at Bangalore you have to pay a Rs.260 user development fee !! Outrageous !!!

I am again wandering around sleeplessly, fed up :((

In U.S !!

Finally landed here in Albany yesterday evening around 6.30 pm. Flights were long and tiring and usual. The Bangalore Frankfurt one was ok as I slept through most parts. The Frankfurt-Washington DC one was awful , could not sleep a wink and nearly 9.30 hours !! The DC-Albany one was just about an hour, the plane looked awfuly shady though. One of those Embraer jets which looked as if it is falling to pieces. There were 2 seats which were damaged and had no back rest !!

Slept like a baby yesterday. Woke up at 3 am watched some TV and fooled around on the laptop, then slept back again 4 am, just like a baby would do ;-)

I had booked a Mazda or equivalent car. When Hertz lady told me that they will give me a small upgrade,I thought maybe I will get a Corolla or Camry. I got a Ford Edge SUV instead !! Now I am in trouble , the thing is so big that I am finding it tough to manouvere around. I will be doing a demo run to Walmart today, hopefully would reach there and not the police station :)

We went to Lathay Biriyani yesterday for dinner. Most of my colleagues here have been in US for past 2 weeks and are really desperate for Indian food :-)) The food was excellent, better than Biriyani's you get in most places in Bangalore.

Today will mostly be just some shopping and roaming around. Have to catch up with some work also later in the day.