24th Feb 2009, Krakow,Poland

23 feb 2009 , lodz , poland

I am thoroughly enjoying my stay in The Grand Hotel in Lodz.
My meeting was at 10 am and I was back in the hotel by 12 Noon.
But looking at the snow outside and the drizzle i decided that staying Indoors was indeed
the best option.
Let me tell you some thing more about this hotel.
The Grand Hotel is about 120 Years old .Built in 1888 its interiors and architecture
is very old.Most of the hotel is quite desolate and its actually quite creepy if you are alone.
The passegways to the rooms are very long and with very dull light chandeliers.
You would acrually think twice about staying hear alone .
But alas I had no options .Even my room had a 3 bulb chandelier.
Now two bulbs were ok but the third one wac constanty flickering.
I noticed it quite late.Initially I saw some thing moving on the wall.
First it were some shadows as the light changed and would incite some images.
Soon I was flooded with all the previous experiences and very soon
I was convinced there was something in the room .
Who knows if this place was a prison during the world war , or maybe a place for execution , or a large cemetery .Poland as it is has a lot of history of bloodshed during the second world war.Since I have been travelling alone since a while now staying
All by my self is ok with me.I thought it would be a good time to see a horror movie.
So I saw “1920 “ and by the time it was over .I was chanting hanuman chalisa.
By the end of it!
In the evening I decided to go and grab some dinner and beer for myself.
So I packed up from head to toe . boy it took me atleast 10 minutes.
I had a set of thermals then my sweaters, mufflers,gloves,cap and umbrella for the
Snow.It took me a while to find a takeaway but I did stumble across a Turkish sandwich shop .Its sandwich turned out to be surprisingly delicious.
I also located a beer shop finally.But the lady at the counter couldn’t understand
A world of English.Fortunately another shopper standing next to me knew English
And translated for me and recommended a strong polish beer.
So I was off with all the stuff ready to party in the room all alone in grand hotel !!
I had to leave for Krakow the next morning by train.

30th Jan 2009,London

My second day in London and I am loving it to the core.
Today I had to go to Eastleigh,SouthAmpton.
It was about and Hours Journey from Gloucter Road Station near my hotel.
I am very lucky as my hotel was very near to the Station and also it was a very alive place.
Today I dressed to the core and I must say I looked great in my blue suit and red tie!
It is an amazing experience to dressup in the morning and go for work , take the subway,
have cofee on the way, truly spectacular.
My journey to eastleigh was quite pleasant .
The meeting was great as well and I was free by 3PM.
I was at the station and had to take the train at 3.11 for London.
Suddenly I realized that I had to call Mom.
Whilst I was on the call a train rolled in , but i mixed up and thought my train will be the
next one.But when there wasnt another train for a while I realized I had missed my train
right in front of my eyes!
So i had to go to the other platform and got on the next one.
The stations here have some great cofee and sandwich shops and cofee is great on a cold and
windy day especially!!
By now i am very familiar with travelling in trains in London , and feel no problems.
MY evening had to be celebrated after all my meetings were over.
So i decided to party.
After hanging in the net cafe for a while i decided i first needed the booze.
So i collected a few beers and then got some stuff packed from BK.
The place in the evening comes to life.
There were several bars,Restaurnts,stores.But going to these places alone is something
i was not too sure.
My hotel room was quite dull , so i decided to watch the old X files on my computer
Finally my party was on , good beer,fries,chicken sandwiches and my hotel room with X files!
Since tomorrow i had to go to Rams place i could get up whenever i wanted.
All in all it was a great day

29th Jan 2009 , London

My first visit to the UK has been quite fascinating.
It is the first time that I am travelling all alone.
The first thing that greets you in London is the laid back buildings and houses
straight out of a fairytale and reminds you of stories like hansel and gretl.
England has an amzing railway infrastructure.
Commuting from one place is failry simple.
I took a train from Heathrow to Earls Court which was an exciting experience.
The subway is jam packed in the morning and you find yourself surrounded by people
in suits , running for work , Brits,Indians , Africans orientals , there are all kinds of faces .
I travelled the first day to swindon which is an hours train journey from Paddington station.
Reminds of the book by agatha christie .
The overland journey to swindon was very pleasant.
I got to see the beautiful english country side.
Most of the construction is of red bricks and all the houses look similar.
The most striking thing about some of the smaller stations is their construction.
It reminds you of any other indian railway station!
My hotel room turned out to be quite small , the way i had expected.
It has a bunk bed , the one in which you have to climb up!
London is a very alive place , you can be alone , but still not feel bored.
In many ways it reminds me of NY also.
i am here for a few more days lets see what else is in store

christmas

My earliest memories of Christmas comes from when I was in school and one of our teacher would dress up as santa and distribute toffees to the students.

This had become a ritual and also it would be the last working day before the school would close for the winter break.I still remember my dad would get a chocolate cake for us on Christmas.

My most memorable Christmas was perhaps in pune in the final year.

It was also a break time for us as the college had closed and we were all lazing around at our homes.

Our great house “ avdhut” was blessed by the benign presence of his lordship Mr. Amritesh Singh.

Amritesh had become an icon for us mortals!

His routine was something we all wished to ape.

It went like this :

Get up at 2 PM in the day.

2 Pm !! except for my sisters wedding when I was up all night I don’t ever , ever remember sleeping till 2 PM!!

So after 2 PM the first thing that waas done was to light up a light….

And then followed by a grand Breakfast cum lunch at Happy Guys café in the campus

Or at home, courtesy Ramesh our cook.

Once all this was done it was Barista time.

Every single day no matter what we would sit at barista….and have café mocha

My god….the amount of business we must have given to barista during those days.

So 25^th dec 2004 was no different either….

After gazing around at the hot crowd in barista for a few hours we decided it was time to go.

We headed for Café Down Under….our favourite hangout place in MG road.

What I really liked about that place was that not only it was reasonably priced , the atmosphere was just like I were at some local country bar in far away America .

After a couple of beers suddenly there was a loud noise.

To everyones wonder and amazement our Mr Goel was lying on the floor, as he had slipped from his chair !

Seeing this , much to the fun of every one around us , I realized it was about time we headed back home.

But now the situation was really out of hand.

Mr. Goel wouldn’t give me the keys of the bike.

Any attempts to get the keys were futile as he would just keep on running away.

So Mr. Goel started to run and I was after him.

First he went around Barista towards east street and then opposite georges restaurant.

All the while he was shouting , pointing towards me “ He is Gay , He is Gay and he is trying to catch me”

Finally I put in all my running efforts to grab him and loaded him on the bike and we were back home.Finally dinner was followed at our favourite terrace.With the view of the city lights and our favourite butter chicken from Saurabh .

My last memorable Christmas was in US when we went for Priyanka’s department party in Buffalo.

I still remember shopping in boulevard mall during Christmas time and how much fun it used to be!

I still have pictures of all of us shopping.It was my first and  last Christmas in the US !

 

My Bike

My earliest memories of riding a motor cycle in pune was when udit,my room mate, bought his passion when we were in the second year. I still remember that night, it was pretty cold at night.

So we went on a long drive to a lot of places.I as usual went in my shorts, a decision I later regreeted, as not only it was quite cold, I also burnt my leg on the silencer!

At that point of time I didn’t really know how to ride a bike, which I learnt very soon, courtesy all the new bikes my friends had bought.

I still remember how I borrowed Himanshu’s bike to go and meet Hamu, my israeli friend .

Boy wasn’t that one adventurous night!!

But my wait was finally over in the summer of 2004 when I finally bought my CBZ!!

It was my good companion for all my remaining days in Pune.

I still remember the first female who adorned the bike!!

It was a foggy , rainy night…..quite romantic!

Soon to add to our collection was aditya’s bike , another CBZ , same colour.

The last time I rode a bike in pune was last year  , and the best part was that it was raining

All the time.Riding at night all friends together was something I remember a lot.

Don’t see that happening again offcourse.

So with pretty much everyone you know in college you have some great memory

To share and cherish , of where you went and what you did on your bike!!

 

 I finally sold off my bike before leaving for the US.

Alka picture hall

Watching movies at alka would soon become my favourite past time !

So I , aditya and udit , my two dear room mates went for a movie for the first time , in Sep 2001.

I clearly remember  the evening as it was ganpati visarjan.

So we 3 boarded an auto and headed for Alka.

Alka, is a unique movie hall, old style, 25-35 Rs ticket and the latest English flicks.

The movie we saw was “ Hannibal”, which still is one of my fav movies!

Another memorable trip to Alka was on Aditya’s birthday in March 02.

We first went for a burger at our favourite at that point of time “ Burger King”

Burger King was also one of our Favorite places to hangout , esp I must have eaten

So many Jumbo Chicken Burgers of Rs 40!!

The movie that we saw was A Jean Claude Van Damme starrer : “Inferno”.

But the interesting thing before that was that we first went to Sarangi a restaurant on East Street, found it too expensive and had to escape!

Next big movie that I can Remember at Alka was “ Lost in Translation”

The amazing thing about this movie was I and udit saw it..and for the first five mts there were just two people in the entire theatre…me and him!!!..later on there were some 4-5 more people….

But it still was an amazing experience…..and on top of that the movie was such a strange one..

It left me quite depressed actually.

Another landmark movie that I saw in alka was “ scooby doo”

So nothing spectacular about the movie offcourse…..

But I saw it after shaving my head , perhaps this was in the month of April 2004.

I don’t remember which was my last movie at Alka, but all in all……it holds some of the sweetest memories for me of college time.

21st may 2008,Melbourne

Well last day in Melbourne.
Last day at kings gate hotel.
Another good bye.
Another farewell..though no one to really say good bye, but some times
Even non living things get attached to me..or rather I get attached to them.
After all I was with them for a full 2 days!
The TV,the room,the shower,etc etc…
No breakfast buffet meant that I would have to my breakfast in the taxi…I guess I forgot to mention
So with another indian student taxi driver, who was perhaps as new in Melbourne as I was as ,I headed off for my final meeting in Melbourne.
Chomping off on an apple and some iced coffee milk I reached the outskirts of Melbourne.
In the middle of an industrial area I found the factory where I was supposed to go.
A most unique thing about Australia is that you don’t have receptionist to greet you.
You walk in , you find a telephone with the extension list and you call the one you have come to meet.In the entire company there were not more than 10 people working!!
The director of the company got his own lunch, and after eating not only washed his own dish but mine as well.Can you ever imagine an MD in India doing that !!!
Well it was an interesting meeting as it turned out that my counterpart was a PhD!! Atleast 50 yrs old.So all I did for the next one hr was to listen to all highly research oriented terms which
Went over my head and I was left with no option but stand guard against the barrage of technical questions.It was like 300 spartans against the Persian army !!
So the meeting or rather the examination same to an end.
My next destination was Sydney.But my flight was at 9 pm and there were a good 8 hrs to go still.
Anyhow I bid farewell to my hosts and left.
Luckily they put me on the 3 pm flight and by 5 pm I was hovering over Sydney.
As I landed on Sydney I was greeted by cold weather and I boarded a taxi for my apartment.
But his time it was a chinese guy for the driver.
I reached the apartments only to find my colleagues yet to come , so I had to wait .
The best part of the entire trip was about to come.
The apt was on the 53rd floor!! With a balcony…
The feeling when cold air whizzes past ur air so high up and with all the lights of the city
Just below you is phenomenal and something I wont forget for a long time.

20th may 2008,melbourne

20th May 2008
I got up at 10..really late!!
Today was a rare day when I had a break during a business visit.
So I took my own sweet time to get ready .
The first thing I did was to get in touch with harsh , my friend in Melbourne university.
So after getting down the details of the meeting point , I was on my way to the Melbourne central station.The trickiest part in local travel in a foreign city is using the public transport and understanding the maps,train timings, etc etc
After buying the tickets from a Seven –Eleven and some instructions from the indian store incharge I headed for the train.The instructions were also unique .I had to remember the street names like this
Kings Street(where I was staying) then William ,Queen and Elizabeth
So it was king- William, queen –elizabeth.Pretty interesting!
Walking down Melbourne downtown was just like being in Manhattan, with parallel streets,
Lots of pedestrians mostly in business suites, I hear Australia is more of a service place with most of the people in jobs.Walking down the streets I bumped in a lot of Indians once again.
Quite a lot of students as well.You can make that out from their backpacks and casual clothes.
Since I had skipped breakfast we headed straight for Hungry Jacks, its like australias McDonalds.
I immediately liked the indian girl taking our orders, tried real hard to read her name on the name batch but couldn’t quite get hold of it.
From here we headed straight to Eureka Towers, supposedly australia’s tallest building and with an observation deck at the 90th floor.A truly charming place.
You can see most of Melbourne from this height.But being a weekday harsh had to leave soon and by 4 pm I was alone once again.
The walk back to the hotel was kind of depressing.I had plenty of time at my disposal but didn’t feel like going anywhere.Plus by this time most of downtown was carrying a deserted look.
On my way back I saw a café by the name The Sherlock Holmes with his most famous line”elementary my dear Watson” written, pretty amusing.
There was another place to see, the immigrants museum on my way back.
But I decided not to go in at the last moment.There was no way I was going to a museum.
So unwantedly I trudged back to the hotel and finally retired to my room.
So with nothing left to do I had no option but to watch TV!
After 2 hrs of non stop TV and with just 3 channels to choose from I was completely going crazy.
So I decided to take a walk , I was also pretty hungry by now.
By 8 pm all the streets wore a bare look , with just a few cars plying about it seemed as if it were very late in the night!
Then I started my stroll outside ,crossing kings street and back.
I came across the usual fast food stuff,subway,pizza joints,Japanese,thai and an Indian restaurant
As well.But indian food was the last thing I would try here!
Finally I came to a really dark part of the street.It also scary walking at night in these places
Who knows when some one may pop out a gun at you!
But still the excitement of being all alone in an alien part of the world can be quite thrilling.
So I came across a sign saying “adult club” but there was not a single light in sight.So I strolled
A little further and came across a heavy gate guarded by two huge looking fellows
I guess I had to turn back now!
And there were several more in the block.
So after strolling around for a good thirty more minutes in the streets I decided it was time to get back.On way I got dinner packed from a subway, though quite unwillingly but I didn’t feel like eating at a fancy place all alone!
So I did enjoy my day in Melbourne finally the icing on the cake was the IPL match witch began at 12 midn ight and offcourse I had to get back to business from tomorrow.

19th may 2008,melbourne

Well its my first trip downunder and it’s a fantastic feeling.
I landed in Sydney on the morning of the 19th may 08, very tired from the long flight via Singapore only to board another one for Melbourne, which was just a one and a half hour affair.
Melbourne was just like any place in the US or Europe , but with an Australian flavour and fantastic weather.The one thing you like about Australia from the word go is their accent!! And when everyone calls you “ mate”!!
BY the second meeting I was really drooping but somehow carrying myself!
Nothing new for me ofcourse.
My colleagues who had other business in Sydney left me in the evening, leaving me once again all alone in an alien city with no friends!
But little did I realize that the best part of the day was yet to come.
I headed straight for the taxi and on my way to the hotel.
One unique thing about Australia is that 99% cab drivers are Indians!
All Punjabis , mostly doing some part time or unheard course like cooking,baking,agriculture etc!!
Its funny how hard we try to get out of our country, accepting any kind of work and job to earn and
Save the almighty dollar.
Its sad! But the fact is that most of these people who go and do such odd jobs , would certainly
Not be having a lifestyle any better than they have here.
So in a way , you cant blame it on anyone.
Its just a misfortune of our country and the people , who miss it at every point of their life in an alien country.
So I reached my hotel , The KIngsgate hotel on kings street , in downtown Melbourne.
This was just like new york , with parallel streets and junctions,tram trolleys plying on the road, and people running from one place to another.
On my way , my cab driver who was an indian was telling me all about good places to eat .
Esp indian food,life in Melbourne,his wife who was doing a course in pastry making!!
Wonder what they teach you in such a course,must be pretty interesting!
So I reached the hotel, it looked decent from outside.
As expected there was no bell boy,typical of hotels in Europe.
So I reach the reception only to be told that my hotel paymeant had not been done !!

That meant I was out of All Australian dollars, except A$ 25.
The earliest money exchange could now be done only at 9 am the following morning!
Well I was glad I atleast had some dough to survive the night!
But the biggest shock was yet to come.
It was my room in the hotel.
Believe it or not , it comprised of a 2 by 2 bed one on top of the other, a wash basin .
That’s it.It was the biggest shock !
And even the damn bathroom was common.it took me a few minutes to fathom the fact
That I will be staying at such a place for 2 nights!!
But I was lucky as I got an upgrade and moved to a room with a tv set and a bathroom!
Now the next thing was to grab some dinner in the money that I was left with.
So I bought some lousy veg pizza and a bottle of water.
So finally came to end a memorable day in Australia.
The best part was that I had a rare off day in the middle of a tour , so it meant I was free to
Go and see Melbourne tomorrow!