08:15 pm :: NorCal...
Current Mood:
hopeful
Off to California on Saturday night, for two weeks. Been looking forward to this visit for quite some time, so let's see what gives.
It takes me exactly 22 days to get sick of Bangalore.
Current Mood:
excited
Off to Hong Kong for a week in an hour or so. BLR-SIN-HKG, on Singapore Airlines, woohoo. Should be fun working there. Hoping to shop for some good clothes.
location: Secunderabad, India
Current Mood: happy
After living The Californian Life for 83 days, I'm back in India. Landed early this morning at HYD, instead of that airplane garage called BLR. Lufthansa is not as enjoyable as Cathay Pacific due to the lack of per-seat-LCD-screens, but I discovered some excellent house numbers on radio channel #6, ClubMix.
Should be headed to Bangalore in a week or slightly more than that.
I've now flown in seven major passenger aircraft - the A320 family, A330 and A340 from Airbus, and the 737, 747, 757 and 777 from Boeing. The A300, A310, A380 and the Boeing 767 remain...
Current Music: Daft Punk - Technologic
Will be in Hyderabad this weekend, till 27th. Then in Bombay from 29th to 1st. Bombay, after almost seven years!
Much attention online these days is on Facebook. Best social-networking site, ever. Must start hacking an app for it. Can't find a LiveJournal app for it yet.
In spite of love life being zero, I've found a lot of peace within myself. So not meant for things like love, relationships, marriage, kids and the continuing vicious cycle, bleh.
Seven states visited in two trips - Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
To log the states you have visited in India, use the script that I wrote two years back. 03:05 pm :: I hear you calling me...
Travelling to Sunnyvale tonight, this time flying over the Pacific. BLR - SIN - HKG - SFO. It'll be good to see Changi Airport again, after seven years.
Will get a phone number there, and update soon.
Got back this afternoon from Bandipur, after an overnight stay.![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
code_martial and suhas accompanied me.
Exhilarating experiences - driving on SH 17 (Mysore Road) and being in a jungle for the first time. Spotted quite a number of birds and mammals, except big cats. Apparently, there weren't any tiger or leopard sightings this weekend.
Spotting a tiger in the wild is tough, and has now become a goal of sorts. Luck has a huge role to play!
The monsoons will be all about Kabini and BR Hills. Which place is better for spotting the mighty cat in June/July?
Current Mood:
calm
Current Music: Audioslave - What You Are
Too many people from work have asked me about this. Too many people at work have been narrating the wrong story of my journey to the US. Here's the real deal. Remember, this blog doesn't lie, so do not believe anybody else. ;)
So here's what happened - I was travelling to an international destination after six long years, and alone at that. My flight from Bangalore to London on the 25th of February, was two hours late, which I realised after arriving at the airport three hours in advance. I was in a real personal mess leading upto that day, so two hours of wait did little to bother me more. As I collected my boarding pass, I was told that I'd miss my connecting flight from London to San Francisco, so I had to connect via Chicago, on American Airlines. British Airways did not give me an option of staying back in London, and I didn't even ask, as I didn't know. :| On the other hand, two of my colleagues arrived later, and were asked to stay back in London.
After a ten plus hour flight, G-YMMV lands at London Heathrow Terminal 4. I transfer to Terminal 3, and on the bus I meet the CEO/President of some medical labs in Boston. He happened to be Indian. CEO count = 1. At the American Airlines counter, I was informed that my connecting flight from Chicago O'Hare to San Francisco was cancelled due to snow. I'd have to fly to Chicago, and wait there, I guess. I hop aboard the 777 to take me to Chicago.
Immigration at Chicago took about an hour, and contrary to what somebody told me, I had no problems. No weird questions asked by the authorities, as to why my port of entry differed from the destination port. Good immigratory luck, I guess.
Baggage collected, and the walk to the American Airlines counters began. Apparently, the aforementioned flight to San Francisco wasn't cancelled. But, I missed it, as the time between flights was only an hour, that was eaten up by immigration. Great.
Lots of passengers had missed their connecting flights to various parts of the States, so the wait in the queue was excrutiatingly long, and painful. I tried finding people who missed the flight to San Francisco, and happened to meet this Indian gentleman, who was equally disgusted with British Airways for retardedly putting us onto connecting flights that were an hour apart from each other. He was on the BA flight from Bangalore, too. It was nearly 22:30 local time.
The lady at the American Airlines counter couldn't put us onto the next flight that left at 07:30 the next day, as it was full. The earliest flight we could take was at 13:40 the next day. Since we were flying domestic on a low-cost airline, we wouldn't get overnight stay in a hotel. American Airlines, however, gave us a supposedly-cheap deal for $55/night in a motel that was 12 minutes away from O'Hare. The gentleman and I agreed to share the room.
You must be thinking I am weird, but I don't blame you. On the other hand, I think I was fortunate enough to meet this person. He had worked in the US earlier, and had even lived in Chicago. He happens to be the CEO of a startup in Bangalore. CEO count = 2. No, he did not try to hire me. I was thankful that there was somebody to help me out in an unknown land. I admit that I am a very nervous sort of a person, and I don't know what I would have done, had this happened to me had I been alone. I turned into a nervous wreck while I was there, but I shall narrate about that in a later post. For now, read on.
So Chicago wasn't pleasant when I landed. It was snowing, with the temperature at -2°C. My jacket wasn't warm at all, and wearing two tees didn't help either. Suffice to say that I was freezing my ass off. The hotel shuttle took its own sweet time to arrive, while we kept walking out of the airport lounge to check on it. Everytime we did that, my ass froze even more. The shuttle arrived after two phone calls (made by the gentleman from Bangalore) to the hotel. Again, I thanked my stars.
Around midnight, we checked into Days Inn, Melrose Park. The place had free WiFi, and the Indian receptionist charged us $49 for the room. So much for "special" hotel deals given to American Airlines. Bleh. The room was paid for by him. He said his company would reimburse all expenses, so I needn't bother. Given the shitty frame of mind I was in when I left Bangalore, it felt nice to meet good people. I take this opportunity to profusely thank this person, for helping me out.
No more weird events happened. I slept like a log till 8 AM, and we left for the airport at 11 AM. The security frame beeped when I walked through it, and I was asked to step back and check for any metal objects on my body. Had my belt on, so into the scanner it went. The frame didn't beep again. I was treated to great pizza at Wolfgang Puck in Chicago O'Hare.
The flight to San Francisco departed at 14:30, as the aircraft had to be de-iced with some green goo. Reached San Francisco six hours later. Got bored on the flight, only entertaining myself by drinking Diet Pepsi, and reading the SkyMall catalogue.
The gentleman from Bangalore met up with his venture capitalist friend at San Francisco. He had a Toyota Prius. I could have taken a cab to my hotel, but I couldn't get enough of adventure. I was advised to take the CalTrain to Santa Clara, and then take a cab to my hotel, which would save me (my company actually) some $$$. Not that I needed to do this, but by this time I was like, "What the heck, bring on the craziness, for I am having fun!"
After freezing my ass off yet again waiting on the platform of the station in Milbrae, I boarded the CalTrain to Santa Clara, standing for ten minutes with my suitcase in a full compartment, before I got a seat. I met this Pakistani lady who had been in the US for twelve years, and had visited Karachi just once all this while. All this while I thought that it was I who needed a life, till I met her. She was a nice person, in her mid 30s me thinks, who chatted about my work, my country, my organisation etc.
At the Santa Clara station, I found a lone cab waiting, perhaps for me. The cab driver was a Gujarati gentleman, who told me how he gave up a decent job to become a cab driver, as this allowed him to socialise more. To each his own, I say.
At 19:30 or thereabouts, on the 26th of February, 2007, I arrived at The Hilton, Santa Clara. Twenty-four hours later than expected. A lot was about to happen in the next three weeks...
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Neneh Cherry - 7 Seconds
Flying to San Francisco this Sunday. Will be in Sunnyale for the next two weeks before I head out to New Jersey/New York City for almost a week. Looking forward to lots of plane-spotting on the way!
Are any of you on Twitter? It's got decent integration with IM. Add me! In more Web 2.65 experimentation, I created my first pipe, that pulls in all the teemus-generated-content on the web.
Current Mood: Flickr
Current Music: Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
Wasn't going to write any of this, butbhavanar scribbled in my Orkut scrapbook asking about the lack of updates on LJ. Thanks for the nudge, lady!
The past week has been most excellent. A quick summary:
The joys of a Flickr Pro account!
The Da Vinci Code (or Vinci Da Code in Punjabi) lined up tonight...
Current Mood:
awake
Current Mood:
blank
Does anybody know of any travel/tour operators offering a package to Malaysia (airfare, lodging and race tickets for all three days) for the F1 Grand Prix to be held at Sepang International Circuit on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March, 2006? Any advertisements in magazines or newspapers for that matter?
It's not that I am feeling lazy to find out. Searched like crazy but couldn't find anything useful.
Please help!
Current Mood:
hopefulOff to California on Saturday night, for two weeks. Been looking forward to this visit for quite some time, so let's see what gives.
It takes me exactly 22 days to get sick of Bangalore.
(5 comments | Leave a comment)
07:21 pm :: HK...Current Mood:
excitedOff to Hong Kong for a week in an hour or so. BLR-SIN-HKG, on Singapore Airlines, woohoo. Should be fun working there. Hoping to shop for some good clothes.
(2 comments | Leave a comment)
08:42 pm :: HYD, AP. IN!location: Secunderabad, India
Current Mood:
happyAfter living The Californian Life for 83 days, I'm back in India. Landed early this morning at HYD, instead of that airplane garage called BLR. Lufthansa is not as enjoyable as Cathay Pacific due to the lack of per-seat-LCD-screens, but I discovered some excellent house numbers on radio channel #6, ClubMix.
Should be headed to Bangalore in a week or slightly more than that.
I've now flown in seven major passenger aircraft - the A320 family, A330 and A340 from Airbus, and the 737, 747, 757 and 777 from Boeing. The A300, A310, A380 and the Boeing 767 remain...
(11 comments | Leave a comment)
03:13 am :: BLR HYD BOMCurrent Music: Daft Punk - Technologic
Will be in Hyderabad this weekend, till 27th. Then in Bombay from 29th to 1st. Bombay, after almost seven years!
Much attention online these days is on Facebook. Best social-networking site, ever. Must start hacking an app for it. Can't find a LiveJournal app for it yet.
In spite of love life being zero, I've found a lot of peace within myself. So not meant for things like love, relationships, marriage, kids and the continuing vicious cycle, bleh.
(16 comments | Leave a comment)
01:50 pm :: VII...Seven states visited in two trips - Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
To log the states you have visited in India, use the script that I wrote two years back. 03:05 pm :: I hear you calling me...
Travelling to Sunnyvale tonight, this time flying over the Pacific. BLR - SIN - HKG - SFO. It'll be good to see Changi Airport again, after seven years.
Will get a phone number there, and update soon.
(11 comments | Leave a comment)
09:31 pm :: Chasing Sher Khan...Got back this afternoon from Bandipur, after an overnight stay.
code_martial and suhas accompanied me.Exhilarating experiences - driving on SH 17 (Mysore Road) and being in a jungle for the first time. Spotted quite a number of birds and mammals, except big cats. Apparently, there weren't any tiger or leopard sightings this weekend.
Spotting a tiger in the wild is tough, and has now become a goal of sorts. Luck has a huge role to play!
The monsoons will be all about Kabini and BR Hills. Which place is better for spotting the mighty cat in June/July?
(13 comments | Leave a comment)
09:12 pm :: USA Chronicles - I: The Entry Into The First World...Current Mood:
calmCurrent Music: Audioslave - What You Are
Too many people from work have asked me about this. Too many people at work have been narrating the wrong story of my journey to the US. Here's the real deal. Remember, this blog doesn't lie, so do not believe anybody else. ;)
So here's what happened - I was travelling to an international destination after six long years, and alone at that. My flight from Bangalore to London on the 25th of February, was two hours late, which I realised after arriving at the airport three hours in advance. I was in a real personal mess leading upto that day, so two hours of wait did little to bother me more. As I collected my boarding pass, I was told that I'd miss my connecting flight from London to San Francisco, so I had to connect via Chicago, on American Airlines. British Airways did not give me an option of staying back in London, and I didn't even ask, as I didn't know. :| On the other hand, two of my colleagues arrived later, and were asked to stay back in London.
After a ten plus hour flight, G-YMMV lands at London Heathrow Terminal 4. I transfer to Terminal 3, and on the bus I meet the CEO/President of some medical labs in Boston. He happened to be Indian. CEO count = 1. At the American Airlines counter, I was informed that my connecting flight from Chicago O'Hare to San Francisco was cancelled due to snow. I'd have to fly to Chicago, and wait there, I guess. I hop aboard the 777 to take me to Chicago.
Immigration at Chicago took about an hour, and contrary to what somebody told me, I had no problems. No weird questions asked by the authorities, as to why my port of entry differed from the destination port. Good immigratory luck, I guess.
Baggage collected, and the walk to the American Airlines counters began. Apparently, the aforementioned flight to San Francisco wasn't cancelled. But, I missed it, as the time between flights was only an hour, that was eaten up by immigration. Great.
Lots of passengers had missed their connecting flights to various parts of the States, so the wait in the queue was excrutiatingly long, and painful. I tried finding people who missed the flight to San Francisco, and happened to meet this Indian gentleman, who was equally disgusted with British Airways for retardedly putting us onto connecting flights that were an hour apart from each other. He was on the BA flight from Bangalore, too. It was nearly 22:30 local time.
The lady at the American Airlines counter couldn't put us onto the next flight that left at 07:30 the next day, as it was full. The earliest flight we could take was at 13:40 the next day. Since we were flying domestic on a low-cost airline, we wouldn't get overnight stay in a hotel. American Airlines, however, gave us a supposedly-cheap deal for $55/night in a motel that was 12 minutes away from O'Hare. The gentleman and I agreed to share the room.
You must be thinking I am weird, but I don't blame you. On the other hand, I think I was fortunate enough to meet this person. He had worked in the US earlier, and had even lived in Chicago. He happens to be the CEO of a startup in Bangalore. CEO count = 2. No, he did not try to hire me. I was thankful that there was somebody to help me out in an unknown land. I admit that I am a very nervous sort of a person, and I don't know what I would have done, had this happened to me had I been alone. I turned into a nervous wreck while I was there, but I shall narrate about that in a later post. For now, read on.
So Chicago wasn't pleasant when I landed. It was snowing, with the temperature at -2°C. My jacket wasn't warm at all, and wearing two tees didn't help either. Suffice to say that I was freezing my ass off. The hotel shuttle took its own sweet time to arrive, while we kept walking out of the airport lounge to check on it. Everytime we did that, my ass froze even more. The shuttle arrived after two phone calls (made by the gentleman from Bangalore) to the hotel. Again, I thanked my stars.
Around midnight, we checked into Days Inn, Melrose Park. The place had free WiFi, and the Indian receptionist charged us $49 for the room. So much for "special" hotel deals given to American Airlines. Bleh. The room was paid for by him. He said his company would reimburse all expenses, so I needn't bother. Given the shitty frame of mind I was in when I left Bangalore, it felt nice to meet good people. I take this opportunity to profusely thank this person, for helping me out.
No more weird events happened. I slept like a log till 8 AM, and we left for the airport at 11 AM. The security frame beeped when I walked through it, and I was asked to step back and check for any metal objects on my body. Had my belt on, so into the scanner it went. The frame didn't beep again. I was treated to great pizza at Wolfgang Puck in Chicago O'Hare.
The flight to San Francisco departed at 14:30, as the aircraft had to be de-iced with some green goo. Reached San Francisco six hours later. Got bored on the flight, only entertaining myself by drinking Diet Pepsi, and reading the SkyMall catalogue.
The gentleman from Bangalore met up with his venture capitalist friend at San Francisco. He had a Toyota Prius. I could have taken a cab to my hotel, but I couldn't get enough of adventure. I was advised to take the CalTrain to Santa Clara, and then take a cab to my hotel, which would save me (my company actually) some $$$. Not that I needed to do this, but by this time I was like, "What the heck, bring on the craziness, for I am having fun!"
After freezing my ass off yet again waiting on the platform of the station in Milbrae, I boarded the CalTrain to Santa Clara, standing for ten minutes with my suitcase in a full compartment, before I got a seat. I met this Pakistani lady who had been in the US for twelve years, and had visited Karachi just once all this while. All this while I thought that it was I who needed a life, till I met her. She was a nice person, in her mid 30s me thinks, who chatted about my work, my country, my organisation etc.
At the Santa Clara station, I found a lone cab waiting, perhaps for me. The cab driver was a Gujarati gentleman, who told me how he gave up a decent job to become a cab driver, as this allowed him to socialise more. To each his own, I say.
At 19:30 or thereabouts, on the 26th of February, 2007, I arrived at The Hilton, Santa Clara. Twenty-four hours later than expected. A lot was about to happen in the next three weeks...
(20 comments | Leave a comment)
06:24 pm :: Getting out of Asia...Current Mood:
excitedCurrent Music: Neneh Cherry - 7 Seconds
Flying to San Francisco this Sunday. Will be in Sunnyale for the next two weeks before I head out to New Jersey/New York City for almost a week. Looking forward to lots of plane-spotting on the way!
Are any of you on Twitter? It's got decent integration with IM. Add me! In more Web 2.65 experimentation, I created my first pipe, that pulls in all the teemus-generated-content on the web.
(19 comments | Leave a comment)
02:17 pm :: What have I been upto?Current Mood: Flickr
Current Music: Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
Wasn't going to write any of this, but
bhavanar scribbled in my Orkut scrapbook asking about the lack of updates on LJ. Thanks for the nudge, lady!The past week has been most excellent. A quick summary:
- Travelled to Hyderabad to meet foolmaker. She's just too amazing. It's great to meet somebody in person for the first time, after a year of staying in touch only through IM or phone.
- LJ meet in Hyderabad happened. Good ol' gang.
- Travelled to Chennai, visited two tsunami-affected villages around Cuddalore, passed through Pondicherry, visited the Aurobindo ashram, and came back to Bangalore, all in the space of 36 hours. Around 1200 km on road. It was tiring, and the humidity in Tamil Nadu is unbearable.
- X-Men: The Last Stand - So spectacular!
The joys of a Flickr Pro account!
The Da Vinci Code (or Vinci Da Code in Punjabi) lined up tonight...
(11 comments | Leave a comment)
02:39 am :: Travel update...Current Mood:
awake- In Hyderabad from 11th to 22nd of February.
- Malaysia trip: Not happening.
(4 comments | Leave a comment)
12:52 am :: Help: Malaysian Grand Prix package tour...Current Mood:
blankDoes anybody know of any travel/tour operators offering a package to Malaysia (airfare, lodging and race tickets for all three days) for the F1 Grand Prix to be held at Sepang International Circuit on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March, 2006? Any advertisements in magazines or newspapers for that matter?
It's not that I am feeling lazy to find out. Searched like crazy but couldn't find anything useful.
Please help!