Back at home

Back home for a few days, the last couple of days in KL have been hellishly busy because of work. At some point, I felt I was back in school again, not a good feeling. Learnt something about the origins of the word 'Posh', goes to the British Raj days. The ships that would sail to India had 2 classes of seats. The ones that was on the side that the sun shone were reserved for Royalty and the other set was reserved for common folks. As the journey progressed, the port side seats were switched to starboard side ones because of the changing position of the sun and these seats were known as Posh seats. Obviously the word picked up in the due course of history, so much so that footballers have wives called 'Posh'. We watched 'World's fastest Indian' today. First off, this has nothing to do with Indians in the subcontinent but has everything to do with speed. Anthony Hopkins does the lead role and he has done a fantastic job :). Its a feel good movie and testament to spirit and determination but in a totally non-aggressive manner. One of the better movies this year, worth a watch. Priya is beginning to twidle her thumbs, so skype her if you have time to kill. I am going back on the road for a few days, should be back by the weekend. Though frankly looks like the rest of the year is shot, we are working on a very interesting opportunity so usually translates to more face time with the customer so automatically means that we have to be in the country for longer periods of time. I will be spending most of November in Kuala Lumpur. India's dismal performance on the pitch reiterates my fear that we are going to miserably fail in the world cup next year. For starters, Sehwag should be dropped and perhaps some radical changes in line up should be made. Quite unlikely, given the current political tinkering that the selection committee is prone too. I went to the World MBA fair in Munich to support the INSEAD booth last week. The conversations with some of the wannabe candidates were eerily familiar. Needless to say my advice was on tap. We had Johannes and family for lunch, had a great time and enjoyed their company. Kids were very sweet and quite well behaved. Any advice on what to do in Hong Kong?

Another weekend in Kl..

Yes, I am back in KL. Life has been generally stressful, polluted and a bit tiring since I got here. Stressed 'cos I have more work than I bargained for, polluted because of the smoke haze from the Indonesian bush fires, tired becuase of more drinking and less sleep. I am experiencing the haze for the first time but I beleive this is a yearly occurence and it goes away only once the rains come back. Office staff were distributing face masks in case it gets worse. Word on the street is that the government does not do anything about it because the fires are caused by Malaysian businessmen burning their plantations in Indonesia for the replanting season. I beleive expats were evacuated in '97 because of the haze, perhaps also due to the asian crisis. Priya is writing exams next week, exams to officially recognize her German speaking abilities. In my case, the shame meter continues to rise because of my diminishing ability to speak german, so much so that I have put it as one of my targets in employee review for next year hoping that will take me off my lazy ass. I am also contemplating taking a few weeks off to pick up the language but so far the schedule for the next 6 months looks tight. I am reading an interesting book, From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman, recommended by Anand. Gives some insight to seemingly unsolvable issues of the middle east, also is a good example of how barbaric we still are. On my flight here, I unwilling gave up my aisle seat to an older lady who wanted to sit next to her husband for a middle seat, but was pleasantly suprised when the cabin crew gave me a bottle of Champagne at the end of the flight for my inconvenience. I must add also, it was a very expensive bottle so perhaps there are still service minded staff on Lufthansa. This was also another deja vu story since one of the passengers on my previous flight was also requested to move which he impolitely dinged, so perhaps self conscience played a role in my submission to the request. Another random thought, out of the blue the other day I mentioned an old classmate's name to Priya saying that I have no idea where he is, could not even remember his first name etc etc. So I was pretty shocked when I got a linked in invitation in my email the next day. Power of the mind perhaps? Oktoberfest pics are up, click on the link in the sidebar on this page.

Marriage test

My 9 month gestation with Siemens is up and it still feels like I started yestersday. Certainly a few things have changed, I have more memories of Munich and my current job than I do of the US and INSEAD. Life also seems a little more settled even though uncertainity of all sorts lingers permanently but perhaps thats the kind of life that we signed up for. I am also slowly getting more embroiled in the day to day politics, fast becoming a rumour monger. Still have 20 days of vacation to blow by the end of the year, so currently scheming what vacation we can afford. We got married again today. Its not as dramatic as it sounds, the Priest's sermon was about marriage woes, and to celebrate our marriages he made us exchange vows again. Priya immediate reaction was that atleast this time she understood what the priest was saying. He said there are 5 top things that most marriage counsellors say are marriage-breakers 1. Uncontrollable anger 2. Lack of communication 3. Lack of quality time together 4. ? (forgot already..) 5. Poor Spiritual life So if some of these are already on your married life radar, act now or repent later!! (Whatever right?) We had the Ranjans over the last weekend from London. We had a good time at Oktoberfest even though both Raji and Prasoon shied away from taking swigs from the barrel though Prasoon finally fell prey to temptation and said he need to quench his taste bud cravings, photographic proof attached. Prasoon's infamous bihari appetite stands up to Bavarian challenges, none of the sausage stands were left unvisited. Did the rounds of the tourist traps, but generally enjoyed the company and bitched about life in general. Did I mention that I met Mohit Bhakuni in India, he is getting married in December. Also met Aloke Bajpai also who is well on his way to nurturing his startup, http://www.travenues.com/ with some of his ex-colleagues from France. Deepak Punwani is as cool as ever, probably moving locations again by the early part of next year. Incase I forgot to mention, it seems like it is raining babies. Among the many, Stuart and Mallika had a baby boy too, we visited them this weekend. Both seem to be taking on their new roles quite handsomely.

Navin and the Oktoberfest

A colleague of mine at work said to me that before you die there 3 places you need to visit. You need to visit Bora Bora, stay in the south of Australia and come to the Munich Oktoberfest!! 1 down, 2 more to go :) It was a blast having Navin over and from what he was telling us he had a such good time that he will need to start popping prozacs once back in Boston. We met up in the Oktoberfest the day he landed and what transpired after, less said the better. Its a weird feel at the fest itself, there is a medley of large tents, throngs of people, thick aroma of roasted chicken and flashing neon lights from all the rides. Each of the tents itself holds about 5000 or more drunk people jiving to beats of a bavarian band. Popular numbers like 'Hotel California' and 'Angel' send the crowds into a tizzy. Beer is served in units of Maβ, a liter of beer, and respectable consumption for a beer afficando I am told is about 4-5 units. My experience was after 3, its happy time and after 4 its sleep time. Seriously though, one of the best experiences in Munich was the Oktoberfest and I am already looking forward to next year. People are very friendly and extremely well behaved, perhaps only possible here in Munich. Priya and Navin did a lot of the tourity stuff while he was here, a lot of places that I have not been too. We did get a day in the mountains, did some hiking and lots of eating. Overall great fun to have him, also I think Priya was glad to have the company while I was in India. I was in Gurgaon for a few days, an eye-opener and certainly one of the strongest bastions supporting the 8% GDP growth. I was also quite disappointed with a long list of issues one has to endure while living there like traffic, pollution, poor infrastructure... but then thats probably most of India. The pace of Gurgaon is quite incredible, everybody is in a tearing hurry. Next post- Bihari (Prasoon) in Munich :)