I'm back. Look forward to post publishing all weekend. New template for now. I grew tired of the old one. We have returned from our hiatus.
And yes - about the work blogging thing, that will be addressed too.
1 week ago
As I got into the car with Anish and Santosh [my driver for the week]; I mentioned to Anish that Pune was definitely quieter than Bombay and, for what it was worth, I felt the air was cleaner too. Anish laughed and said 'Just wait till we get to the area where your hotel is.' Uh oh. I grabbed our camera out of the bag and started taking some pictures but ultimately was drawn into conversation with Anish about my trip over from Minneapolis and I gave him a brief but extremely sardonic highlight reel. I must have done something right because he laughed all the way to the hotel.
As we pulled into the Hotel Royal Orchid area, I immediately noticed the noise levels getting ratcheted up. The noise from two-wheeler traffic in that area is beyond ridiculous. Apparently, 57% of all Pune traffic is some sort of motorized two-wheeler. Talk about a carbon footprint. Daym.
I checked into the hotel and ultimately was being given the once over by Varsha the receptionist. There was even a twice over by Ritika [the floor manager]. Geez you'd think the wedding ring had disappeared or something. I was given room 612 [which is funny since it's the area code for much of the Twin Cities]. I ran out to the car and told Anish that I'll go upstairs, dump my crap and then we can run to get dinner because I was getting hungry and didn't want to eat alone. [For those of you who know me, you know that I hate that after all the years of eating alone in college.]
I keyed into my room, dropped my bags on the luggage holder, grabbed the camera, looked around to ensure I didn't leave any money laying around; then headed back downstairs. I had the driver take me to an ATM so I could grab cash for the next couple of days in case I chose to shop. We then headed for the area of Koregaon Park where Sigree was.
As we got to the area, I realized that a lot of the restaurants are located away from the office parks. Perhaps this is on purpose? Probably forces people to get out of that working mindset for however long they are at lunch [which is discussed further below]. Anish and I walked up to the place only to find out that they don't seat for dinner until 7 pm so we went next door to the coffee shop to grab a cup and have some conversation. One thing I noticed that's common about the coffee shops here and in India is that some of them can get pretty obnoxious about volume control on the premises. Pretty crazy if you ask me; I had to ask the barista to turn it down since I felt like I was projecting louder than I needed to have a conversation with a guy I just met. The response I got - "Sorry Sir, this is the standard volume here." Thanks for the lack of common courtesy there.
Either way, we went over to Sigree and Anish and I had an awesome time at dinner. The place is what they call in India a 'concept restaurant'. What is essentially amounts to is that it's Korean Barbeque style dining at one's table. One difference here is that Sigree is an all you can eat for $10. I shit you not, we were there from 7 to about 9:30 just eating. Little did I know that this was a theme that was going to continue for the rest of the week.
Anish had me dropped off to the hotel and I went upstairs to settle in and shower. Once done, I booted up the laptop and downloaded my email after paying for wireless. Not going to discuss ridiculous pricing for that btw. Then it hit me, I was actually far away in a hotel room and it was almost 10 pm and I was up like it was 8 am in Minneapolis. Well shit, jet lag sucks man. I didn't fall asleep till 3:30 am. I read my book and basically dozed off. Problem of the day - I set a 7:30 wake up call. Yep, I got 4 hours of sleep but I guess that's the best way to beat jet lag right? Just plough through it.
Tell you this much about the hotel, it was pretty good with the amenities. I woke up, showered and then shaved, got ready and headed to get some breakfast. That pretty much settled the morning routine - with a breakfast buffet like that - aloo paratha, eggs and dosas; you can sign me up to show up every morning. It was awesome since I got to pick my own table overlooking the roadside and just read till I Was ready to get to work. Even though I could've walked it, I had a car waiting at 9 am for me. So that's how my week began.
Going to my workplace was an experience in itself. I think it surprised a lot of the local crew that an Indian dude got out of the 'company car'. Made me a little self conscious but I guess it's the same way here too. Once I got settled into the office and met with my crew, I'll sum up the rest of my trip as so : If I wasn't meeting, I was eating. Since it's work and not that glamorous, I'll leave it at the fact that Anish and the guys out at Pune totally made the trip worth it with the information we shared back and forth but the highlights of the trip were the restaurants I hit. check this out:
Sunday - Dinner - Sigree
Monday - Lunch - Khyber [Punjabi Mughlai]
Monday - Dinner - Dosa Plaza
Tuesday - Lunch - Yana Sizzlers
Tuesday - Dinner - La Pizzeria
Wednesday - Lunch - Yellow Chillies
Wednesday - Dinner - Sigree
Thursday - Lunch - BBQ Nation
Thursday - Dinner - Kabab
Friday - Lunch - Dosa Plaza
I should point out two quick things here:
First, I spent Tuesday evening with Hemanshu and he took me to La Pizzeria where their risotto was awesome and it was great to catch up with him after a long time! Thanks dude! I am sure I'll see you again in the fall :)
Second, Ajay and I took the team to Sigree on Wednesday night and that was a complete blast. Actually getting to hang with the team and chill with them helped cement the dynamic a bit I think. I like the people I work with there so it actually helped to let them see that I'm abnormal. The team was cool enough to buy me a tie as a gift for visiting/thank you for working with them.
Friday was just a quick flight back to Pune and a ride back to Mom and Dad's. I spent the Saturday just watching TV :) Yes. That's all I did. T was coming in that night so that's the next post!
it would seem someone from work has found this blog. Gotta love those live metrics HTML codes that track back to the IPs :) I hope whoever has found this can see that I keep the name of my employer out of this blog. But this is my space on the web and I love to keep my life an open book. I've got little to hide and all that I do is to respect the privacy of others! However, they must have loved my writing since they spent 3 hours here on April 24th; and they read every single month since I started writing. Too bad, looks like work never got done for that time. Tsk.
That being said, I have been lazy about posting. With work so busy and the house projects we're ramping up for; I have not had the time to update here. I want to give this blog the attention and justice it deserves. I know the handful of readers I have understand that. I'll be back shortly with the complete trip + latest thoughts on where life has taken me.
Hope you all are doing something illegal and not getting caught. Catch ya on the other side.
Feel free to put 2:34 to 2:36 on repeat. I did!
As soon as my parents and I exchanged the usual pleasantaries, Dad asked me why I was so red and pat came my reply 'Uh, it's hot here.' I could see my dad start to smile at himself as soon as he heard me say that. He must have been thinking Saala Amreekan. We got to the cab and rest assured, like all trips to India, the coolies start crawling out of the woodwork asking I needed help to put the suitcases onto the luggage rack of the cab. As I casually hefted it over to the top, I looked at one dude who half my height and weight and politely declined. To which, he gave me the stinkeye. Weird.
Daddy then says, sit in the back. I open the door to the backseat and look at him and ask him if he's crazy. There's no way I would fit in that space. So I then took the front seat and brought my knees to my chin. Just as I did in the plane. Oh joy! As we settled in for the 40 minute drive, my mom hands me a bottle of water to wash down the pollution in the air I was sucking down. That stuff could be a meal on its own in Bombay. Then she hands me the most joyous bag of chips in the world. Mr. Krisps!!! Those things are the bomb. Anyone who's lived in Dubai will attest that they rule the school. So the cab ride home was basically a chance to tell my parents about my green card, my promotion, my trip and all it's wonderful moments [hardly but one must attempt to be positive].
As we pulled into the area around the gated community where mom and dad live, I started noticing a huge change as to the actual physical appearance of what used to be the major crossroads outside the neighborhood. For one, there were all these glass facaded buildings that were shiny even at 1 a.m. Daddy told me they were the new BPO centers for all these multinational companies. BPO = Call Centers. It would seem my parent's 'burb is now the happening part of town. All those raging hormones in a 5 square mile radius. Bet that's interesting.
As we entered the gates of the neighborhood, I noticed that not a lot had actually changed inside the compound. We pulled into our building and there was Vineet, our neighbor, who I've chatted with once or twice but never met. I got out, introduced myself officially and then after a few minutes of small talk, all of us went upstairs to the flat. It was kind of nice to have the watchman unload the cab for us. I was totally tired out from the trip and had very little if no upper body strength left to haul 40 pound bags from the top of a car.
After getting into the flat and actually sitting down on a couch after approximately 36 hours of travel, I just closed my eyes for a few seconds while mummy got me some ice water. I looked around the place that my parents call home and noticed that not much had changed at all. The furniture was still as dark as I remembered it. The actual flat seemed smaller but then I was also very young when I last visited. Never really paid attention to the overall look and feel of the place.
I opened up my bags really quick and gave my mom and dad their stuff that the family from the US sent and just pulled out a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt out so I could shower and hit the sack as soon as possible. Of course, that meant that I slept at about 5 am. Last thing I remember seeing that evening/night was my blackberry and it said 4:58 am so I'm assuming that I fell asleep right after that.
I woke up at about 9 am and went outside and turned the TV on. No brushing my teeth, no good mornings to my parents or anything. I literally started searching for some desi music videos! Once I hit upon a channel, I then turned to the window, yawned, stretched and then took in the Sunday morning from the window. It was surreal to be in India. I had always imagined the flat to be bigger than it was but turns out it the size of our old apartment if not a little smaller. Mom got me some chai and I read the Mumbai Mirror for a few minutes. Realizing that I had a flight at 4:15 and that traffic in the city does not get better on the weekends, Daddy said I should pack and get ready to leave by 1:30 just incase it's a pain in the ass to get there.
So I hit the shower and then started to pack for the week. Pretty easy actually, a couple of slacks, sleeping clothes, underwear, socks, shirts, toileteries, cologne, camera, iPod. At this time, Mom made a light lunch since I was still very jet-lagged and not in the mood to eat heavy food. At about 1:30, Daddy came back with the cab and we all hopped into the cab and drove to Santa Cruz airport for me to take a 15 minute flight to Pune.
As we weaved through traffic, I realized one thing about the environment I was in, I wasn't noticing the poverty around me. I now wonder if it's just some sort of internal Indian coping mechanism to deal with the fact that it can be overwhelming. Either way, we got to the airport and then I ended up doing my byes to M and D in the drop off area since they weren't allowing non passengers anywhere near the airport due to the 11/26 attacks.
I walked up to the Jet Airways counter, showed them my passport and received a print out [dot matrix printer yo!] of my e-ticket. Which begs the question, why can't I just go to a kiosk and check in? What a waste of resources and useless job creation. One person to print off tickets, one to check the ticket at the door, one to check you in. Pointless. I checked my bag in and then proceeded through to security.
With that, let us take a break here. I need you to envision this properly. Imagine the metal detectors at any old airport. Now imagine them made of wood. Good? Now imagine a really seedy looking cop on the other side of the metal detector with paan stained teeth beckoning at you to come through with a lecherous look on his face. Good? Now imagine going through said metal detector and landing onto a podium about a foot off the ground with really worn carpet covering it. Good? Now imagine aformentioned cop 'patting' you down and 'wanding' you while NOT looking at you. Barf bags are in the seat back in front of you. Blech.
This is where it got interesting. I was in the lounge of the local airport where they had on one side, a book shop, a cafe and a lounge and on the other two columns of Bose speakers for announcements. In the middle, it looked like a train station. People on the floor all over the place. What really got to me about this place, while it showed promise, was the incessant need to have someone related to Fran Drescher make the flight announcements every three minutes.
Celebrity Sighting [well, sort of] I saw Vinod Kambli @ the airport listening to his headphones and I gave him a cursory wave and got one back.
At long last, after about an hours wait of watching TV and reading the news paper, my flight was boarded. I got in line to go to the gate and sure enough... we were walking to the plane. No biggie. I planned for this. So I walked to the plane, ascended the stairs, was greeted by the customary welcome aboard sir stuff and then found my seat, a nice aisle next to some gents from Nebraska. We got to talking for a few minutes then settled in for a quick nap.
What happens next is unique. All the refreshments and chai-paani were served on the ground before we took off. I suppose that's what you would do if you were in the air only for 20 minutes right? At this point, I nodded off. It had been a long few days and sitting there doing nothing was just something I couldn't resist a catnap! The plane took off and I only opened my eyes at landing.
As I was exiting the plane, I thanked my flight attendants and they were taken aback that someone had actually said thank you back. Pune airport is a one gate airport. It's actually a gate borrowed from the Air Force base located there so all commercial traffic is taken through one gate. Yes I know, inane but vaat to do my friednz, dees ij India.
I waited about 20 minutes to get my bag and then proceeded to arrivals for my ride. My contact Anish was there and he welcomed me with a big smile, a handshake and a 'oh my you're taller than I thought. I should have brought the bigger car' Uh Oh.
Moving onto the next week in the next post. I know I've been lax. I hope to get better in the next two weeks.
In the days leading up the trip, T and I went through a bunch of checklists that were crazy to say the least. The international traveler's dilemma - How much to pack? and How much is too much? As with all planned efforts of packing, I packed the night before leaving :) What? It's the best way to do it! People pack much better on instinct right?
Either way, I had a work from home day on Friday the 2nd of January so that I could get to the airport at 1 pm for my 3:15 flight. That morning it still felt surreal as I was doing last minute checks on the bags, my toiletries and travel documents. I guess it felt that way because a) I was going home after so long of just 'wanting' to go home.
I remember waking up and taking T to work that morning, then driving home and eating some breakfast. I hit the showers and started to get ready. I made sure I had all of my electronics cables for the camera, laptop and iPod in my trolley roller bag. I packed the camera into the roller bag as well since I didn't want to put it in the checked baggage.
At some point that week, KK had called and said that she was going to be in the Cities and would love to have lunch with us before I left so keeping that in mind, I called her at 10 and sure enough, KK was asleep. Which, if you know her, is nothing new! After a quick discussion on the merits of QDoba, I headed over to the Eden Prairie location and ordered lunch. I got a Naked Chicken Taco Salad, got T the same and got KK a Chicken Quesdilla with a couple of bags of chips and salsa and then headed to work.
For the uninitiated, T and I work together at the same company. She works just on the other side of the building from me so it's kinda cool that we see each other all the time ;) Although, I'm sure she'll say - "Please. I see enough of you already."
As I came into the break room, KK called for directions [as usual] and I guided her into the parking lot. When T came for lunch and we finally sat down, a couple of my co-workers saw me and were like "Aren't you supposed to be gone?" To which I replied "I'm just having lunch with my wife. I won't get to see her for a week man. Give me a break!"
We had a really nice lunch with KK and then Bhaya came to get me from work to go to the airport. Since it was an international flight and was fully booked, I thought it might be smart to get there earlier to account for the 'random' checking on the flight that I may encounter. On the drive over, Bhaya and I were just random chit chatting and playing with Nikhil who was confused at a) being out of school and b) driving with Chacha to some place he had no idea about.
As we pulled into the aiport and started to unload the bags, Nikhil got his usual 'WTF' look going. The boy gets worked up with suitcases because he thinks, bless his heart, that he's leaving again. Having been adopted, he isn't used to a change in his life easily yet. Once he saw my stuff loaded up on a cart, he then relaxed a little but was upset at the fact that I was leaving and I got no 'ummas' [kisses] while I was saying bye. As soon as I kissed his forehead and gave Bhaya a hug to go into the terminal, there was an immediate cooing from him - 'umma! umma! umma!' and I got three kisses as a goodbye. Heart wrenching let me tell you.
The check in line was short and I was checked in and in the security line within 10 minutes of being dropped off. As I snaked through the line, I pulled out my passport and green card for the TSA dude and lo and behold no 'random check' WoOt! Being an experienced traveler, I chose to forego style for comfort on this trip. I was wearing track pants, a kurta and my Keen sandals. So much for the metal detector - muahahaha! As I progressed into the shopping area of the mall, I decided to buy a travel pillow to match the blanket I had bought earlier in the week.
So after all that drama for the day, now began the hard part. I tried not to overhydrate since airplane bathrooms are the suck and I didn't know who would get stuck next to me in the aisle. I'm usually an aisle guy but I got the window in the hopes that I would be able to sleep on this leg and then stay awake from Amsterdam to quickly adjust to the timezones.
As I boarded, I saw this big guy sitting next to me and I thought to myself - 'Well shit.' However, to my pleasant surprise, I got a big smile from him and the chap in front of us and they both introduced themselves - Trond and Bruce. Yes. Trond. He's from Norway, those peeps have interesting names eh? Bruce was a pleasant chap from Manchester who, not surprisingly, was not a Manchester United fan.
We settled in and as the plane was taxiing and getting in line to take off, conversation moved towards towards Football - the real kind, not American Football. Bruce asked for some scores and we got into talking about the latest round of games etc. Trond had just gotten done visiting his girlfriend, who he met online [don't ask], and was returning home.
After takeoff and our first round of drinks/snacks, we got to talking about his work. The guy works for a Norway based oil drilling outfit based on the southwest coast of the country and they're pitching for business in the Midwest, in North Dakota of all places. A very interesting dude, he worked as a prison guard [showed] in between career changes from an accountant to doing quality control on guages and other cool stuff. Basically a really nice guy. He was kind enough to note that I had a fairly expensive camera and showed me his Canon SLR as well. As we got our nerd on, the flight was getting quieter since people were falling asleep.
We ended up working out a system where we would time bathroom breaks and watch each other's stuff since we were carrying a laptop and camera each. I ended up watching Eagle Eye on the plane and I Am Legend and Rambo on my iPod. At that point, I should have been sleeping but never managed to do so. So much for my grand idea to beat the time difference. I fell asleep for the last 3 hours of the 9 hour flight.
As the flight landed, I realized that I was maybe a tad undressed for the jetway. It was 42 degrees F outside in Amsterdam. Trond and I made our way to the food court/duty free are of Schiphol [ A shitty airport and whole another post for later. ]
We each had 3 hours between flights which after all the walking and looking for food turned into an hour and a half. We had breakfast and then just chit chatted about our work, our loved ones and our experiences. Definitely a guy who I would have a beer with. It's hard to find people who just are at peace with themselves and where they are in life you know?
As we exchanged business cards and went our seperate ways, I was very tempted to hit the showers at Schiphol airport but decided against it. Sure it's 30 dollars but I was short on time and it's a good thing too. I got to the gate and ended up in line to get checked into my flight. This time I was lucky and had the window and aisle both to myself so I just stretched out and basically slept for six hours and read for the other four. This flight was pretty uneventful except that I got into words with the desis behind me and not so politely told them to STFU.
As we were clearance to land into Bombay, I used the rest room pretty fast to avoid the rush later. The approach was smoggy at best :| Bombay's gotten more crowded as the years have gone by and it shows. I thought it was fog till I realized that there was no coverage over the water. As soon as we hit about 500 feet the stench of the city literally shot through the plane. I will be honest, I did go 'whooooaaa' in my head but trying to be a trooper.
The landing was pretty smooth and it was about 10 minutes till we got to a gate. We ended up getting a remote gate which meant buses to the terminal. Of course you know what this meant right? Every. Single. Person. on the plane stood up before it parked and the seat belt sign was turned off in the hopes to catch the first bus into immigration. I sat there and one guy looked at me like I was smoking crack and I looked back at him with a look that read somewhere between you're an idiot and you're a retard. I literally was one of the last 10 people to get off the plane and got a spot on the bus with 20 people instead of the usual 50-60 on a bus.
The drive into the terminal reinforced my opinion of goverment workers in India. Approximately twenty baggage handlers were sitting on their asses while only five were working on our luggage to get it on the conveyor belts. Figures. "It's not my job." syndrome is still rampant there. The actual immigration piece went really smooth and I was out of passport control within twenty minutes. They looked at my Green Card, my passport and stamp.. stamp.. done.
My bags took forever to get there but as soon as I got elbowed in the ribs about four times, I was able to take my bags out of customs and headed towards the exit. I saw my dad through the glass partition and after paying for the cab, I headed to greet them. I was in India. There was a week of work ahead of me but I was excited to be anywhere but the US at that time...
Next up - Mumbai + Pune [Week 1 of trip]
Thanks for the link Manish....
The Monday after David's death, I went to work in a shittier than usual mood. I mean, I've had foul moods and then there was this. T and I drove to work that day in total quiet. I just didn't want to be there. That day was also going to be busy so I had to focus up on the tasks I had to take care of for my boss. The day passed by pretty uneventfully that day up until 3 pm.
My boss sent me this IM.
QB: You are now a QA Manager. Effective 1/1 you will have an increase in annual salary of $XXXX.
Paresh: Thank you very much Q
Paresh: I appreciate it.
QB: You deserve it! May i announce at our meeting today? (except for salary info of course)
Paresh: Sure!
So I finally got the promotion I was looking for for about two years. So basking in that knowledge, I told T as well via IM. So my day closed out on a good note. We went home and had some dinner [I forget where] and then while T was on the phone [with who I forget, I think it was Piki or KK], I decided to get online and check my email. As my email was downloading, I wasn't paying attention and just watching TV. Then I looked over. Then I smiled. Then I almost cried. Why you ask?
Application Type: I485, APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS
Current Status: Card Production Ordered.
What this meant was that after almost 4.5 years of struggling, T and I were officially Green Card Holders! The relief that washed over me was something that you could really touch. I forwarded the email to my brother and said 'please review' and then he called back and was all excited. Meanwhile, T was still on the phone and I told her as soon as she hung up and instead of us running around like crazy people, all we did was sit there and cuddle and just bask in the double happiness. It was bitter sweet though, with what had happened the previous weekend. But we were happy. It was over.
The next night we headed out to have dinner with Bhaya and Bhabhi and Nikhil before I headed out to India. I also went to Briana and Trent's place to celebrate with Champagne. It was overdue for us but there it was. Now we had nothing to worry about regarding immigration.
Of course, that also makes the whole "go have a baby" thing a little crazy :)
OK. Moving on to the next post now - I'll talk about the trip!
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