Israel

And the third country which drives on the right side of the road is Israel. Having missed it for long in China, I was on a lookout from the very beginning here. I don’t know if I was just tired and imagining, but from the bus Israel appeared to be mix of things I am familiar with, but no one thing. At one time I saw those dull coloured houses, all alike, like the houses provided by some government department. At other time I saw shiny buildings like in the electronics city in Bangalore. While walking up the hilly areas it reminded me of the drive in the lower regions of Himalayas. And some of the areas this bus took us through one morning reminded me of the markets in my hometown.

The breakfast at a place beside a port was cool. What is it with beaches though. Either terribly humid (like most beaches in India and here in Israel) or extremely chilly like in bay area. I wish there was something more moderate somewhere.

Whatever be the political complications, I’d not be surprised if Israelis started driving on the right side of the road, just because Americans did. Probably its an effort to separate their identity from the rest of their middle eastern neighbours, or probably its just the mighty thing US is in the present day world, Israelis work hard to portray that they are very much like Americans. But at the same time, given their turbulent history and the need for an Israeli identity, Hebrew as a language has a very good stronghold. Given the fact that Hebrew had become a dead language for a very large period of time in History, this situation seems extraordinary. And people use Hebrew in professional circles despite the fact the most of them are fairly comfortable with English. This is unlike Japan or China, where using local language is a compulsion because people do not know English.

The mind-blowing part of Israel was, however, Jerusalem tour (surprise! surprise! ). While being an Indian, exposure to other religions is hardly an issue, what we always miss out on is the lack of history of religions other than Hinduism in India. If there is an ancient religious place I would think of, it’d invariably be a Hindu temple. The historical sights in Japan were also restricted to those of Buddhism, which with its roots in India, hardly gave me any new feelings. But Jerusalem opens the door to the things completely different. It tells the history of all major religions other than Hinduism! Jews, Christians and Islam – all can come here in search of their roots. Seeing the church made of old-world stone walls was what made me realize as to how I could never see anything historically related to these other religions in India. Churches, and to a lesser extent mosques, seem like a modern day phenomenon in India with brick and mortar structure. The religion and politics are so intermixed in the history of Jerusalem, that you could easily spend your whole life analyzing it.

Jerusalem is divided into four quarters. Jews’ quarters, Moslem quarters, Christian Quarters and Armenian Quarters. Although Armenians are also essentially Christians, they have their separate quarter for some historical reason. Western Walls and The Church of Holy Sepulchre are the two major sites we visited. Two temples were built in the history of Judaism on the Temple Mount. None exist now, having been destroyed by the attackers at different points of time. What exists is a mosque built by Moslems called Al-Aqsa mosque. When the temple was still around, it had different parts. The innermost part called the “Holy of holies” is considered the most holy spot for Jews and with years of foreign occupation etc. Western Wall is the closest one could get to the the “Holy of Holies”. Hence, its importance. As to the story of the construction of the wall itself, it was explained well using models by the tour guide in the tunnel besides the holy wall. The wall is essentially is a result of trying to build an artificial plateau on the top of the hill to have space for a huge temple. It is not a wall around the temple, rather a wall of the raised platform on which the temple was built. It appears as a wall from the valley besides the platform. Obviously there are four walls like that, but the importance of Western Wall comes from the reason stated above that this is closest to the “Holy of Holies”.

When Moslems came to live in Jerusalem and built the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they wanted to be able to see the mosque from their houses. So, they tried to raise their houses being built beside the wall so that the mosque could be in sight. To do this, they built arches over arches, until it got higher than the wall and they could see the mosque from their houses. The houses still exist, and the tunnel that one takes to walk near the Western Walls indeed pass from under those houses.

The guide also told us some other tidbits about the things in those tunnels. Arches built by the Moslems were clearly visible. And there were arches beneath us too, as visible from the transparent glasses they had put at some places on the floor. Although not constructed for this purpose originally, the tunnels were fitted with Aqua-ducts at times to carry water. There was also a place used as a water pool by the Romans. Also, the Western Wall apparently was constructed in a way so that the successive layers of stones were put few centimeters away from the valley. This was supposedly done to let the wall seem like leaning away from the valley, so that people walking on the street in the valley did not feel scared that this huge wall could fall on them.

There was also a market place surrounding the area, which was used to exchange money by the pilgrims who came there to buy the sacrifice and of course to buy the sacrifice too. I would guess other implements of worship would have been available as well. Much like the market outside temples in India! We also walked through a place where a street was being constructed in the market place, but then the construction was halted. Either because they ran out of money or because the kind Herod, who was constructing it, died.

Like almost all the ancient buildings across the world, even the Western Wall has its share of one heavy, huge thing, about which people wonder as to how was it ever fitted in there. This is a huge stone in this case. It apparently weighs as much as 150-200 Asian elephants.

When we came out of the tunnels beside the wall, we were in Moslem quarters. And for some reason, we were supposed to walk between two armed guards. Although the reason was not at all clear. All the Israelis around us refused to accept that we were in any kind of danger. Apparently, this is just a regulation. Not sure why this is so. Once they had escorted us out to the Western Wall Plaza, we were fine. It is this Plaza, where people go up to Western Wall to pray. There is a tradition of writing your wish on a paper and stick it in the wall there. Thousands of paper chits can be seen stuck in the wall all over. There are separate prayer areas for Men and Women.

The idea of armed guards in the Moslem quarters is not quite as simple as requiring protection in the Moslem quarters because we did pass through the Arab Markets later on. Not quite sure what was going on there.

The most interesting story came out in front of the Church of Holy Sepulchre. The ownership of church by different sects is quite a messy issue. Currently the different chapels and parts in the church are occupied by the different sects. But since they could not decide on which sect should hold the key to the church, the key is held by a Muslim family. Actually there are two of even those. One keeps the keys, the other opens the lock! There is also an interesting story of a ladder kept near one of the windows on the upper floor in the church visible from outside. This was taken there probably for some kind of renovation, when it was decided that nothing could be done to the church because of the feud between the different sects. So, the ladder lies there for almost a century and a half in the same position.

Wikipedia article gives more details on some of these stories. There are 14 stations of the Cross, which trace important places where thing happened to Christ starting from the trial to the burial. Apparently we crossed some of them when we walked out of the tunnel near Western Walls and were protected by armed guards. Last 5 are located in this church. these are the places where he was stripped of his possessions, where cross was put upon him, where he died, where he was prepared for burial and where he was finally buried. Since, I used the 45 minutes time we had on our own to go back to the church with the guide, I could see the tomb believed to be that of Christ by most sects, except for some Protestants. The guide also took us to one Chapel, in fairly decrepit state, that of Syrian orthodox sect, where through a really small entrance you could go in and find some tombs. These are believed to be of some other Biblical figures, whose names I do not remember because I do not know much of the Biblical stories.

Inside the church is a place where Helena, Constantine’s mother, is supposed to have found the real cross and hence built the first Church. The Church had been built and re-built over time by various sects of attackers, and the guide showed us a place where different kinds of pillars were there. Apparently old remnants were used in one of the renovations. Overall the experience was rightly summarized by one of my American colleagues, “These are almost as entertaining as your temples”. I nodded vigorously!

And while I was thinking about Jerusalem on our way back to Tel Aviv, I suddenly realized what a religious bombshell lies in that old city. If Ayodhya or Mathura are so sensitive with temple and mosques next to each other, just how sensitive Jerusalem would be, to which the claim of various religions is so well historically grounded. Now that it is under Israel, Jews only have to try to rebuild their temple… Thank God, they aren’t!

Japan After Day 1 – II

The third day in Japan was much better with respect to the weather. Although the earthquake happened that day. We did not feel it though. We only got to know about it when our train got delayed by 15 minutes once.

We visited Kamakura this day. Like on the the colleagues familiar with Japan had told me, that looked more like the Japan you see in the movies. No high rises. Wooden houses and shops. Many were selling some souvenirs. I bought one more, but no luck with Kimonos here.

Kamakura has this huge Buddha Statue, which is hollow from inside (you can pay 10 yen and go inside). Apparently the insider was used to keep the money and gold. From what the tour guide told us (it did not look like that to me), the posture of Buddha there is slightly forward bending. This means that he is eager to meet you; does not matter who you are – rich or poor, healthy or sick. Also, Buddha has long ears there, which supposedly means that he is there to listen to everyone.

Then we visited the Hase Temple Garden. Its a beautiful garden and has a Buddha temple inside. In the temple, there is an impressive statue. We were not allowed to take photos. There was the usual praying routine of throwing a coin and bowing. There was also this ritual of writing one letter of the Buddhist Sukta on a stone and put it in a box. Essentially each devotee writes one letter and so everyone together completes the sukta. Each letter was written on a page and you turned the page after writing the letter and depositing the stone in the box, so that the next person could write the next one. Neat, isn’t it?

The temple also had an exhibition, much of which was not understandable, as the labels and descriptions were in all Japanese. But they had an exhibition which showed all different forms Buddha has taken. I do not remember the number, but I guess it was in 30s. Not sure if Buddhism in India has any such concept. But does this not look terribly similar to the “avatar” concept of Buddhism. The status depicting all the form had all kinds of weird stuff including laughing Buddha and one with a devil’s head. There was also a concept of different devilish looking people protecting Buddha. Do not know where does all this come from. Buddha, we know of, was more human and down to earth- not so divine and royal.

We had seen this even in Meji Jingu shrine. There is this custom of writing your wish on a wooden plate and hanging it at a designated place. Again looks very similar to the custom of tying a thread around a tree for your wishes at many places in India.

I ate some wonderful rice cake in a small restaurant there. You also get a wonderful view of Pacific ocean from one of the points.

If Sony and Panasonic showrooms are impressive for their functional and useful innovations, NTT Museum of Communication was fascinating for the playful kid in you. You could play games where you touch the shadow and they disappear. Where you touch something and a different kind of shadow get projected. I am not able to describe it picturesquely. Not quite my area of expertise I guess! You have to see it to feel fascinated.

And then Akihabara – the electronics market that absolutely blows you off. I managed to buy a car audio system for my dad, which he really wanted to come from Japan/China. But I did not have time to buy some more stuff I’d have liked. (Cheap, cheap – external hard drive and some other cool, affordable stuff). Like Kimono – some other time – At dinner, folks enjoyed a particularly strong form of Japanese Wine (I forget the name)!

On Day 4, we visited fish wholesale market, where auction of Tuna is carried out. With rains pouring in again, it almost reminded me of vegetable markets in the the towns I have lived in, only much bigger in scale of operations!

More in next post.

Technorati : Japan, Travel

Japan After Day 1 – I

Before we move on to day 2, let me make some random observations. There does not seem to be a concept like free left turn in Japan at the traffic signals. Also it seems like the left and forward side of the traffic opens simultaneously for traffic from opposite directions and then the right side separately (again simultaneously for traffic in opposite directions). Further I always found it difficult to locate rest-rooms in Japan. Not that they were not there. Just that there weren’t obvious signs about where they are. Is is something cultural?

Day 2 was tough to navigate with typhoon and hence continuous rains. We had started the day early and went through the empty markets as most of them open only at 10. We waited about 15 minutes for Kiddy Land to open, which is the most famous toy shop in Japan. My American colleagues were quite excited, I did not share the same excitement. and I grudged it even more later, because we were given very little time at the Buddhist temple, where lots of cheap souvenirs were available for low prices (including Kimonos) and I’d have liked to shop more there We visited Meiji Jingu shrine. This is dedicate to the emperor called Meiji and the empress called Ichijo Masako. Japanese temples have this practice of purifying yourself before entering the temple which is very similar to Indian practice. They wash their hands and rinse their mouth. In Indian temples you would do that and even wash your feet. But they do not seem to care about the purity of legs or taking off your shoes. The process of praying involves offering a coin, bowing and clapping twice. This is the only place, where I think coins of value less than 100 Yen is of any value. This shrine, besides its cultural importance, is particularly famous for its garden. Although heavy downpours are not exactly conducive while visiting a place like this. We also saw part of a marriage ceremony, where the priests marched up in a line and performed some rites on a covered platform. We could not wait to see the bride and bridegroom. We did see a picture of a traditional wedding, in which bride wears a headdress besides a Kimono. Apparently the headdress is to hide the horns that women grow when they are jealous!! And by wearing the headdress, the bride is supposed to promise that she will be patient in her married life. “Although”, our tour guide quickly noticed, “they never wear the headdress after the wedding these days.”

After that we visited a Buddhist temple (I need to see the schedule to recall the name). This was an excellent place to buy souvenirs from. Kimonos were available for as little as 1000 Yen (that would be about 400 INR). I quickly bought something from one of the shops, but did not have more time There was a fortune telling ritual there. You basically put in a coin and pick out a paper with your fortune in a fancy way (I could not quite figure out). I did not take it, but most people who did, figured out that they have a rather dark future! I was glad, I did not do it. In some cases it became darker due to the translation issues.

The dressing habits of the Japanese are completely western and has been so for quite sometime now, I guess, because I saw even elderly women in Pants and Skirts only. Kimono is almost a dead dress, except probably for being worn on weddings. But surprisingly, while the dresses of the tradition have been left behind, the language and culture has not been. To such an extent that most people, in the capital city, did not understand even keywords from English!! Although I had heard about it, the extent of language difficulty we faced, totally surprised me. Is it really possible in this age of globalization for people not to know English in the capital city of a country? But difficulties aside, I secretly felt happy about it. Its a question of whether the business should adjust to the culture, or whether the culture should adjust to business. The right option according to me is the former. And that seems to be happening in Japan. I was really happy to see some of our American colleagues, based in Japan, fluently speaking Japanese. Once again I feel guilty about not learning Kannada despite being in Bangalore for one year. I never needed to. English works fine!

So, how does it work? Despite couple of old-time examples like Dhirubhai Ambani, you can not think of a present day hi-tech entrepreneur/successful business-person in India, who is not fluent in English. How come the CEOs of companies in Japan seem to manage fine without even an ability to understand spoken English?

When I visited SONY and Panasonic showrooms, what I observed very quickly was that despite being well known global brands and having presence almost everywhere, there is just so much they develop for Japanese market specifically. Japanese market it being served well and even the start-ups look at Japanese market. Indian market is not sufficiently explored in the hi-tech world. We are still seeing adapted product coming here, rather than product developed for India (and then hopefully go out to the rest of the world adapted). And even in services, where we excel, rather than in products, how much is being done for Indian consumers? How many call centers recruit people not knowing English, but one of the local languages. We are serving the markets outside India (nothing wrong with it), but are not serving the Indian market enough.

Its a more nuanced situation. So, there is more to be said about business and technology in India vs. Japan. But later…

Technorati : Japan, Japan Travel

Day 1 in Japan

The earliest impression of Japan as a country and a culture on me was from those short, inspirational stories we read. I remember two of them somewhat. One was about a really old Japanese man trying to learn a new language, when it was obvious that he is not going to be alive in few years. And the other one was about a Japanese offering an Indian visitor a basket of fresh fruits, refusing to take any money for it, just because he overheard him saying that good fruits are not available in Japan. He did not want a visitor to carry a bad impression for his country. And it is because of such a culture, we were told, that Japan has progressed so much more than India has, despite it being almost a destroyed country at the time of Indian independence. Later in my life, of course, there would be people like Dr. Rahul Verman, who would coolly argue, that if Japan’s progress is related to its culture, all that should have happened in Bihar (essentially alluding to Bihar being the stronghold of Buddhism). But, despite that, some aura around this country remained. Needless to say I am in an all-observation mood ever since I landed in this country a few hours ago.

Narita airport is rather far from Tokyo. It took us almost 2 hours by a chartered bus to reach to our hotel. Having heard so much about space constraints in Japan, I was dead certain that unlike the US, here I’d not be starved for the sense of having human beings around. Initially I was almost disappointed on the long run on a highway. But as cities started coming closer, I started seeing those high-rises and all the people and felt more at home. I was also disappointed to see no two-wheelers on the road. But my guess is that it was because of the heavy rain. Later, after entering the city, I did see a couple of them. Hopefully they are more common here. And of course, I noted with a sense of relief that they drive on the left side of the road (Which country other than the USA drives on the right?).

Come the hotel and hotel staff will actually take care of your luggage. Feels like being at home. At least in the hotels I have stayed in the US, and they appear pretty decent, people many a times do not come forward to help, even when they see you struggling with your luggage. Probably you have to go really, really high end hotels for such help??

And ah! How did I forget the airport. So, I was with a large group of American passport holders. When I showed my passport to one of the persons directing the queue at immigration counter, he said “Oh!” and my first thought was – “Gosh! Some trouble with having Indian passport – more questions? Different counter?”. But he followed it up with saying “Namaste”. He was simply trying to greet me in my language

Yen Baffles me. 500 USD become almost 60k Yen. Why can’t they have a different unit for 100 yens or something? Seeing a dish in the restaurant priced at 1000 Yen, I have to immediately start calculations to set my heart at ease.

Reataurant was fun today. Our Japanese colleagues were trying to find us the best dishes. And the guy on our table was in a bad situation, because people with all kinds of dietary restrictions were sitting on that table (strictly vegetarian, vegetarian – but egg okay, only fish in non-vegetarian, non-vegetarian but no pork, no beef etc. etc.). And I was thinking “Asian, Asian…” the whole time seeing the way he was taking care of everyone’s food. I even felt guilty because I was sitting next to him and could clearly see that he was hardly able to eat anything himself. And when people engaged him in conversation on the table, he almost always stopped eating trying to concentrate on people’s talks.

I did manage to eat some Salad, Rice and baked potatoes besides an appetizer. In dessert I ordered a rice cake and it was good.

Photos here.

When I meet people form these different countries, I very acutely realized that how difficult it is to define “Indian ways” as compared to the ways of many other countries/cultures. Often, people tend to have a clear cut answer to what to expect in Japan and how to behave etc. Its so difficult in India. I have often stumbled. Is it okay to talk loudly in a restaurant… Well – we have done it several times – without being unIndian in any way, but can I say its okay?? No, its not in certain circumstances. How about kissing in public? Go to Bandra Reclamation area in Bombay and you would not be able to say strict “No” to this question ever. But can you say “yes”? Blowing nose? Talking to a stranger? I am appreciating it when we say India has diversity. We can not claim to have the diversity of the kind US has – the ethnic diversity. But diversity of ethos is just too difficult to miss, when you find it difficult to answer questions around what is okay or not okay in India.

Its late night here and the schedule tomorrow is hectic. Rest later.

Technorati : Japan, Tokyo, Travel

Travel Bug – Information Gathering – Indian Passport and World Travel

When I started looking at the travel tips online yesterday night, I (once again) very hopefelessly realized that almost all of it is tailored for Americans traveling into Europe!

Now, I’d like to travel into Europe, but that information is almost useless for me because I need VISAs to travel to all those countries (unlike the American Passport Holders) and I do not earn in dollars. So, the notion of cheap and costly is widely divergent.

Anyway, whenever I go to Europe, given the VISA requirements and the cost of flying, it’d make sense to spend long enough time (at least a month) there and cover several countries. So, for now I’d concentrate on the nearest neighbour – Sri Lanka.

But I’d get into that in another post. In this one let me put down the little research I did on European and other travels as an Indian passport holder. Of course, all the information here is being presented on “as-is” basis and I take no guarantee of the accuracy of information.

The first thing to know about traveling in Europe with an Indian passport is the VISA requirement. All members of EU, except UK and Ireland, plus Switzerland and Norway (and Iceland also) can be covered by applying for Schengen VISA. Separate VISA needs to be taken for UK and Ireland. But even for Schengen VISA, some of the signatories of Schengen Agreement have not yet implemented it. The wikipedia article linked here gives good information on this.

As for which consulate/embassy to apply at for Schengen VISA, here is the rule

• If you are visiting only one country, apply in the consulate of that country
• If you are visiting multiple countries, but there is one main destination where you are staying, apply in the consulate of that country
• If you are visiting multiple countries, but do not have a main destination, then apply in the consulate of the country you are entering from.

The above has been taken from Schengen VISA’s official website. You should check that out. It also tells you about requirements etc.

Also did some research on traeling within those places. Unlike US, European countries have good public transportation systems. You can save some money and have a convenient time by buying the rail passes, especially meant for the foreigners, before you enter Europe (they are costlier if bought in Europe!). You can buy passes that cover all the countries (except UK), cover only one country, cover selected countries – you can choose depending on your plans. The passes also come in different denominations. Some are valid for 1 week to 3 months of continuous travel. But my guess is that more useful will be the ones which are valid for 10/15 days of travle in 2/3 months. I guess you won’t be travelling everyday. For UK, Scotland and Wales, separete passes can be bought for similar validity periods. Here is a good article on traveling and staying within Europe, with the links at the bottom about travel and stay options. I am reproducing the list here. There is one mistake in the URL there. European Hostels site’s corrent URL is www.europeanhostels.com and not the one without ’s’ as it appears there.

The following are web sites for rail and bus passes mentioned in this article:

Eurail Passes, www.eurail.com;
Rail Europe, www.raileurope.com;
Rail Europa, www.raileuropa.com;
Kiwi Experience, www.bugpacific.com;
Magic Bus, www.magicbus.com.

These hostel network web sites allow you to check bed or room availability, make reservations, and confirm prices:

European Hostels, www.europeanhostels.com;
Worldwide Hostels, www.hostels.com.

So much for Europe. There is a pleasant surprise I got from this wikipedia Article on Indian Passport. Fine, you need VISA for Europe, but all is not lost. There are still lot of places you can travel to without VISA or easy VISA with Indian passport – mostly in Asia and Africa. Check out the article for a list. Of course, you should verify the information there before actually packing your bags! Sri Lanka, by the way, is one of them where you can get a 30 day VISA on arrival. And hey, apparently in Bhutan you are better off with an Indian passport. Getting entry is easy enough for almost anyone in Bhutan, but others have to pay something like USD200 a day as tourist tarriff!! With India, there is a free movement of people.

I have done and am doing research on Sri Lanka, but I’ll post them after I have finalized my plans.

Technorati : europe travel, travel, travel for indians, world travel for indians

Whatever happened to this blog?

What have I been up to. Work, travel, reading and writing. Writing? Whatever happened to the blog then? This post is an assortment of ramblings to fill up the gap. Let’s see to what extent do I succeed.

Work is well – work. Not much to talk about it here. Work is great, and I am doing fine.

Rest of them are related. Am back from another trip to Mountain View. I visited Berkley (UCB) this time. And did it in a very convenient manner – thanks to Sid for driving me back and forth from there (and hence saving the pain of changing trains twice and still wondering how to reach the hotel from the Caltrain station in Mountain View ). I flew British Airways this time and that meant that unlike Singapore Airlines, I was passing over land and countries for a significant period of time. And Europe tempted me. I want to travel there soon. And the fact that acquired the first digital camera of my life in this visit is doing its share of work in encouraging the traveller and tourist inside me. Have even made the estimates of expenses for a one month trip to Europe And also to places in Asia. How does Sri Lanka sound to begin with?

So, this urge to travel far and wide made me think. Is there a way of traveling across the world, leisurely, earning while traveling by doing small, little things? I guess its not so simple. VISAs cost a lot and tourist VISAs would not allow me to work in most cases I guess. Does anyone know of a good model, where you do not necessarily save all the required money before traveling?

Reading. I have read Namesake, Princess (by Jean Sasson and I conveniently lost the book right after reading – seems to have disappeared in my home!), Wise and otherwise (by Sudha Murthy), Mashi and other stories (Tagore) and Family Matters (Rohinton Mistry).

Wise and otherwise was a big disappointment. It’s naive and mediocre writing. For most part, neither the subject matter, nor the language creates an enthusiasm to read. I do not think I am reading any other books from her, if this is the right book to go by. Tagore was, like always, Tagore.

Namesake is extremely good. I have heard people not liking the book because the theme is a repeat of her first book of short stories. I think that’s a wrong thing to base the judgment on. Novel brings out a totally different aspect of story-telling than short stories. Most of the short stories of hers were a snapshots in time. In the novel you see the characters evolving, you live with them, you feel them around you. Not something short stories can achieve. And no, it did not evoke a sense of boredom because of the repetition of the theme. And there was more I saw in the book than just the story of an immigrant family. I mentioned it to some people once. You do not need to be living across the globe to identify with the movie. Its a story of disconnect. Disconnect from origins and past. Disconnect between generations, who have essentially grown up in different worlds, with different set of values. Its a story of inaccessibility. Inaccessibility of people who mattered. Inaccessibility of the roots. When I heard the news of my maternal uncle dying and figured that there was no way to reach there in time to see him one last time, I identified with it. When I realize just how far my life, despite living in the same country, is from the values, traditions and style of my origins, I identify with it. When I fail to explain my choices, my ways to my parents, I identify with it. I also saw the movie. Movie is pretty good. However, cliched as it may sound, it is no substitute for the book. Too much had to be fitted in the movie in a limited time. And then there are those subtle things, very, very difficult to explain in the movie, because a book can give words to the thoughts of people in a way the movie can not. I’d strongly recommend reading the book, even if (or especially if) you have seen the movie. But there was one thing that echoed in my mind more from the movie than from the book. “Go out and see the world”. It was told to Ashok. And later Gogol found it out for himself. I think Ashok did not really stay true to the message. He went out to see the world, but what he essentially ended up doing was to leave one world and inhabit another. And the world was still confined to those two pieces. He did not really go out and see the world. Hopefully with his American passport (and the travel conveniences that come with it), Gogol would do better And I hope to do that. I’d be different from Ashok. I would not uproot my home. I’d go out and see the world, but come back to the home. In India.

Princess is a disturbing book. If it is actually a true story, as claimed by the author, then it is just too depressing. The truth is a shame on humanity. And the worst part of it all is that it seems nothing can be done to better the situation! Some of the stories are really hearth-wenching. I am tempted to recount some of them, but they just seem too horrible. Not sure I want to get into that depressing mood right now.

Family Matters is another good book. Probably I’ll write in details later. Or may be I won’t, given the recent performance of this blog

And now the writing? Why was the blog suffering if I was writing. The reason in this. Several times in my blog I had said that regular readers should not assume that they know all about me because they read all my blog posts. And that’s true. Because I am usually very careful about what I write in my blog. I do not want to reveal details about myself that should not be out there for everyone to see, I do not want to offend people around me, I do not want to write about people I am not sure I should write about in public and I do not want to even accidentally reveal a confidential information related to my employment and get the company in trouble with SEC You get the idea. Plus I also try to resist the temptation to write trivial, harmless things about my life, which add no value to anyone reading them. I may not always succeed always. But again, you can see that there is a lot that I do not write. That means I have to be more careful about choosing the subject to write about and also about what I am writing. I have not had enough time recently to give enough time to write with these constraints. Once you remove some of these constraints, writing becomes much easier and faster. But I do not think public blog is the right place to do that kind of writing. So, I have been sharing that with only a very small group. What I’d probably do periodically is to go through those and the parts that fit in well with the scope of this book would be copied here too.

Okay. 4.29 AM! I am jet lagged. But I better try to return to the regular routine fast. Lots of things need to get done before I fly again – very soon! Don’t know whether to feel good or sad about it. But the travels of next month are not only to the US, but also to China, Japan and Israel. Am I excited? Its all official trip, but a trip to new countries anyway. Of course, I am excited! Let me get some sleep, while my American colleagues take their doses for immunizing them before coming to India

Shivagange

Its not necessary to praise every place you visit by sacrificing your weekend, is it? So, this time I am not going to praise it. Okay, don’t take that to mean that I have a negative recommendation for just everybody. Depends on your mood, purpose and expectations. So, just read on.

We went to this place called Shivagange, around 70 kms from Bangalore, last Saturday. There were three of us in total. We were warned that nothing suitable can be gotten for lunch there. So, I exercised my newly found cooking skills at making roti and sabji and packed it up too. In fact I had planned it even before the warning came through because of my previous trysts with South Indian food (no insults intended – its just that I do not like it) on the trips. That was the only good decision taken I suppose

Well – so this place has a rather tough climb uphill. And what you are supposed to get as a treat at the end of the terribly tiring trip is a statue of Nandi carved out of the rocks. When we had just started climbing up we saw a statue of Nandi and then laughed at ourselves at attaching too much of importance to that. The real treat was waiting up there, right? Now the place misguides you with the decent stairs made in the beginning of the climb. They end soon and all you are left with is the single option of making your way through the rocks. Some unhygienic “Ganne ka juice”, “Neembu Paani” and cucumber are the things you can console yourself with. Right when you are thinking that you have been adventurous for quite sometime by climbing through those rocks, you get to see another stair. Just that this time it is steep as hell, and many a time the steps are so small that you have keep your legs at ninety degrees to your body to let them fit it. After a while, you are simply clinging to the railings to get up. Reminds of those old Hindi Movies with an old lady clinging to whatever comes in her way and somehow managing to reach “bhagwaan ke dwaar” to pray for her son bleeding profusely in the hospital. Well – we did not have any such desperation either. Still we clinged on and climbed on. For that real treat. And when we finally reached there, we saw a statue not only much smaller than the one we had seen at the beginning of the climb, but smaller than several others you will see scattered around in the city of Bangalore too. The population density of monkeys made mockery of any plans we were still left with of eating our food at the top of the hill. We hardly felt like staying there much longer. I was so disappointed that I forgot to even look for the “Suicide Point” where Queen Shantala is supposed to have committed suicide from. Well – that’s a tourist spot – I can’t help it.

However, if you like climbing for the sake of it. Do go ahead. And its not bad for weight loss either. I lost a full 200 gms

Several Things

Literature

After a long time, read something through to its ending. Even though it wasn’t very big. Read “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. Thanks to Nishit. And regretted not having read Orwell till now. Beautiful allegory. As you read through it, you can fit it into just so many things around you. Of course, people may love or hate it, depending on their outlook of life. I fall in the first category Call me cynical and skeptical

Supermarket Layout and Exteriors

I have been wondering about Subhiksha – the chain of supermarkets. First thing, I invariably find their entrance to be very non-inviting. From the road I often can not sort of figure out whether there is a way to enter at all and hence whether the shop is open. And this is not the case with one outlet of theirs but several – and at all times of the day. Compare that with a Food World or a Fabmall, where you can very often see some merchandise from the road and also the queue at the billing counter. The result was that despite Subhiksha stores being located at very convenient locations for me, I never ventured into any of their stores. Until one fine Sunday evening. I was kind of tired and a Subhiksha store was the closest one I could go to. I thought this was the right time to break the barrier. Got in only to find out that the store is closed for stock taking!!! Closed on a Sunday evening?? You do not need too much of Market Research to figure out that in a city like Bangalore that’s suicidal. But is it that its only me who finds them so non-inviting? Or are they losing business from others too?

Customer Service Centers vs. Delivery People

Recently I had posted about my experience with Bluedart. Their Customer Service Center was quite responsive, but the delivery just could not keep up with the standards. Had a similar experience with a new Airtel Mobile Connection recently. I asked for plan X. I was given the plan Y. And I had no idea that this has happened. But for some fortunate reason I decided to register online soon after the SIM getting activated. There the description of the plan was there. If I had used the phone in a way as if I was on the plan I had asked for, I would have gone bankrupt at the end of the month. I was furious. Once again, customer service center did a much better job than the agent who had gotten my application form. Because the plan I asked for had been withdrawn he conveniently changed the name of the plan in the application without caring to inform me!! Give me a break. And when I went to him to complain, he was terribly rude. He tells me that if I do not want it I should send a mail to customer service (was “kind” enough to pass on the e-mail id) and get it canceled and if I have to cancel my Standing Instruction of payment, I should contact my bank. The only thing that did finally keep me to Airtel is that there aren’t many feasible alternatives for GSM here. Hutch has a poor connectivity throughout Bangalore. BSNL seems like an unreachable species. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go with regional players like Spice. Their plans seem to target students more than anyone else, anyway.

What I felt in both the instances was that customer service centers did well enough (it could have been better, but still). But the people at the deliver end, with whom I had the face to face contact, were terrible. There can be two reasons for this. Either that it is easy enough for customer service to “do” their thing (i.e. promising nice things), because they do not have take up the task of “actual delivery”. The delivery people might be too overloaded to keep up to the promises given by the customer service. This could be the case with Bluedart. However, I do not see that being the situation in Airtel’s incident. Customer Service was quite fast in responding to my queries to them over e-mails and they changed the plan to a different one, which I had finally settled for, far more quickly than I had expected. The agent was obviously being utterly careless when he changed the plan name on my form without having taken my permission. Is it that companies are taking their jobs as granted and not giving them as much training as they do to their customer service center staff? Is it a case of an outsourced process (customer service) doing better than one which is probably not outsourced and hence not enough focus being given to the quality? Aren’t there such simple do’s and dont’s spelled out for the agents. I could have easily dragged Airtel to the consumer court for something as serious as this save for that deep ingrained Indian mentality of “avoiding police and courts”. I suppose its high time companies started taking care of their front-ends too.

Trips

Have been to Jog Falls, Nandi Hills, Shivasamudra Falls and Banerghatta Park in last few weeks.

Jog Falls was through a KSTDC trip. Contrary to what is written there, the trips run only on Friday and Saturday nights(Subhiksha has a lesson to learn here I guess ). There is something sad about the location of Jog Falls with respect to Bangalore. It is too far and there aren’t many other things that you can see on the way. KSTDC bus is not that good (there isn’t even an AC bus available) and takes too much of time in reaching there. Plus as if to justify taking you that far they have created useless sights on the way. There is a temple which has nothing great about it, and there are some two-three “view-points” for the fall, which for most part waste your time. Finally when you reach the fall, getting down takes a lot of time as the path is not that easy to go on. While you are down there near the fall, you feel its really worth it. Getting up does not take as much time, but it tires you like hell. More than a week’s share of workout done in those few minutes. Overall, it’d be nice if they stopped fooling around and made you reach the fall little earlier. For those who do not like South Indian food, it is advisable to pack something for taking care of their hunger. Probably a better way of visiting the fall is to stop there during a longer trip which is taking you further from there. Traveling for so long for those very few hours at the fall may make you feel like it wasn’t such a great idea.

Somebody told me when I informed him of my plan to go to Nandi Hills that there is nothing there – just a hill. And well! He was right. Its only a picnic spot, something for which we did not go prepared. The “fun” was to be traveling in a new Scorpio being driven by a novice driver!! Ask me what do you do when the vehicle gets stuck on a uphill slope and putting the breaks off to enable it to accelerate up only starts taking it back… Or better still ask those poor bike riders who were coming just behind us and were taken by surprise couple of times, when suddenly our vehicle decided to go backwards without any warning. And I learnt a driving lesson purely inductively – the black and yellow strips on the railings indicated hairpin turns. Yes – and do not ask how many of those were there. Finally do not ask who the driver was

Shivasamudra Falls ride was again on the same Scorpio as mentioned above. But this was easier on the plain roads. The climbing down and climbing up for the fall was much easier than at the Jog Falls and the amount of water you get to see is also higher than the Jog Falls. Even though its not that high, it was a more pleasant experience.

For Banerghatta I had to ride my bike for 25 kilometers to get a Scorpio ride for the remaining 5 kilometers . Since we reached early in the morning, we did not have to wait much for Safari trip. We saw lions, tigers and beers bears. But they all appear so tamed that there isn’t much of excitement.

Movies

Saw “Bas Ek Pal“. Had watched “My Brother Nikhil” recently before this, which was a much acclaimed movie by the same director. “My Brother Nikhil” had succeeded in doing something very odd. You felt sympathy for the way the HIV positive person was treated by the society and by his own parents. And this sympathy remains there despite the fact that the victim is associated with a highly tabooed characteristic of homo-sexuality. Director tried to create a similar effect in “Bas Ek Pal” I suppose, where the protagonist becomes a victim of other people’s game after demonstrating a desperate behaviour twoards the heroine. Somehow, the sympathy for his victimization is not generated as well. His “unreasoble behaviour” takes away the sympathy. However, I should put disclaimer on this comparison. I had seen “My Brother Nikhil” at home, alone, while “Bas Ek Pal” was watched at the theatre. So, the “ever-ready-to-make-fun-of-things” Indian theatre going Junta might have affected my perception of “Bas Ek Pal”, which did not come into play in the case of “My Brother Nikhil”.

Also saw “Khosla ka Ghosla“. I think the beauty of the movie is that it has the right amount of seriousness and humour, together. One may question the moral of the kind of ending it has. Basically a “tit for tat” to defeat the comical villain. Cheating him because he was cheating you. And letting the “cheating him in response to his cheating” strategy win instead of a more Gandhian approach But all I’d say that it is not to be taken seriously. Enjoy the treatments of subjects like generation gap, the disharmony coming from a boy from a middle class family becoming a computer engineer and having a totally different outlook towards life, success and money, the dreams of a middle class man who has spent his life saving for that dream home for himself and his children etc. And of course, enjoy the feel good a success of tit for tat strategy gives you, but do not take it too seriously. Its very unlikely to work in real life anyway. The real life villains won’t be that comical.

So much for now!

Technorati : Airtel, Animal Farm, Banerghatta, Bangalore, Bas Ek Pal, Bollywood, Customer Service, George Orwell, Hindi Movies, Jog Falls, Khosla ka Ghosla, Layout, Nandi Hills, Outings, Outings from Bangalore, Shivasamudra Falls, Subhiksha, Super Market

Ahmedabad Tour

Left the guesthouse at 11 in the morning and by 2.20 pm I was having lunch in a restaurant after having visited Kankaria Lake, Kankaria Zoo, Jhulta Minar, Bhadra Fort (including the Bhadrakali Temple) and Hathisinh Jain Temple!!

Two months of supermarket visits seem to have made me really fast when it comes to going around Ahmedabad…

Anyway, the zoo and lake had nothing unusual, one is not allowed to shake the “Jhulta Minars” and I am not sure what I saw was indeed a fort…. The Jain Temple was nice but one is not allowed to take photographs. So, I am back trying to get my report done…

As bad as it can get!

The air-fare and 2AC fare Pepsi was willing to pay notwithstanding, had a bad journey to Ahmedabad. First the AC ticket from Katihar to Patna had to be cancelled at the last moment, because my dad, who was to accompany me till Patna had to change his plans and so my cousin brother had to come with me. He could not have disguised as a 52 years old man! Then we did not get another ticket in AC and had to come in sleeper. That too, initially was in RAC, which fortunately got confirmed. Reached the airport only to realize that tha 9.10 flight to Delhi that I was supposed to catch no longer exists in the schedule. There was no one to explain what was to be done to those passengers who were issued a confirmed tickets in that flight. Literally not a single soul on the Patna Airport except the security guards. After waiting for around 3 hours, finally the airport manager came and said that I have been confirmed a seat in the 2.50 flight to Delhi. Now, this flight would go via Ranchi and hence would reach Delhi only at 5.55 pm. My connecting flight to Ahmedabad was at 6.30 pm. That was too close for comfort. But I hoped they will take care of it. My cousin brother’s friend who works in Delhi Airport was appraised of the situation and he assured to take care of it. The flight reached Delhi only by 6.40, but the connecting flight was waiting for three passengers from this flight fortunately. We were transferred through a vehicle on the air-strip itself (Ever caught a bus at the last moment? It was literally the same feeling)! Reached Ahmedabad only to realize that we have reached, but not our luggage!! (Yeah, yeah I HAD done a through check-in at Patna). Had to manage the night in the same clothes in which I was travelling. Could not even take a bath. But fortunately in the guest house, rest of the things were not much of a trouble. Got my luggage only next morning and was late for the office on the first day itself