Thursday, February 23, 2006

People are reading my Blog ! (I'm surprised...)

Its a long time since I put something up here. I was busy vacationing (Ahem... Business trip to the US, that eventually turned into one of the most amazing trips i ever had). I never had time to complete one post as so much was happening in so little time. I will probably put up a lot of posts with a photo blog later... Now I'm at the last leg of my journey... Back to the Changi International Airport at Singapore. My flight to Bangalore beckons me back to my homeland... Aloha !

P.S. Another Thing... When I was in US, i got mails from people saying "Dude U not writing anything on the blog??" Yahoo... people are "actually" reading my Blog ! (I'm surpriesed & excited)

Friday, February 10, 2006

Day 1, Yet Again (The US Diaries - 2)

I worte it some days back, on the flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles.... here it is

It’s Day 2 of my first foray out of my homeland… Or is it?? I just crossed the International Date Line, so technically, its Day 1 “Yet Again”. If someone would have told me I would be going to US for an Adobe Conference and would be writing a blog entry about it, and that too on air… I would have thought, “Here is a mad psycho”.

I’m on the way from Tokyo to L.A. My official entry into the US of A. Travel has been good… haven’t slept a wink, roamed around the whole Singapore airport sometime back and now a 10 hour flight from Tokyo, I still am not sleepy. Looks like Jet lag is really gonna hit me hard.

I recognized the peril of being an international traveler. Either be a vegetarian or be ready for anything. For me, it was doubly hard, coz I do not eat sea food (I finally tried my first prawns… wasn’t bad). International flights offer a menu of International/Local in the food. If you do not mention that you are a veggie while booking, halleluiah.

There was some assortment of fishes in the international menu, so I decided to check out the Japanese stuff (I was hungry). Here it goes…

1. An appetizer of a salad that had mushrooms + seaweed and what I think is some oyster (yummy for some, not for me). What was more, it had a dressing of orchid petals (which I must confess was delicious). It had also an undersized tomato and a sweet-potato steamed and cut in the form of a flower

2. The main course had a chicken breast (stewed in a sauce filled with seaweeds again) and some very sticky rice (which had a couple of green peas stuck on the top – guess it makes it close to a pulao)

3. Cold-Green-Noodles and some sauce with something cut-up (I think it was onion lentils, I hope it was not sea weed again). I tried, every sane (according to me) way of eating it, only to realize you had to cut-up the noodles (coz I didn’t know how to use chopsticks) which was absolutely bland and drop them into the sauce and then have it.

There was a burfi-like sweet, topped with a prawn (???) as dessert…. That was the meal. The only smooth sailing was a bread piece with butter and some good white wine.

After the (mis)adventure with Japanese food, I’m finally planning to catch some sleep now. Its morn 05:20 L.A time (but I will still take close to 5 hrs to get there)…

Friday, February 03, 2006

Day 1, Singapore (The US Diaries - 1)

Its not exactly Day1... I'm right now at Singapore's Changi International Airport. Half of the journey to San Jose is done... I have a 7 hour stop over here. I'm at the Rainforest Lounge here.

My maiden international flight was a pleasent experience. An amazingly huge airplane (atleast 2.5 times the domestic ones), decent food and a great inflight entertainment system. That sums it all...

I spent most of my time (about 4 hrs flying time) watching a movie called "Just Like Heaven". A very cute and feel-good movie that i enjoyed (Reese Weatherspoon was good). The rest of the time, i saw the climax of "The Italian Job" which is like one of my favourite movies.

Having done that i was resting with my head on a pillow and playing a Country & Progressive Radio Station, gazing out of the window... And lo, what do i see? "The Great Bear" is right outside my window, following my path... I felt as if i was sailing among the stars (I kinda was).

Singapore Airport is great.. vast, colorful and exciting, even at 03:00. Went on clicking photos all over the place and walked as much as i could (this place is huge... one terminal to another is like a 20 minute walk, even with escalators & travellators).

Really lloking forward for the trip, the only sad part is that i will really miss Lanka's Birthday and the Bryan Adams Concert in Bangalore. But equally excited about the conference and its repercusions on my career.

For now, looking forward for the SPR - LA flight at 09:20(time is 05:00 here in Singapore). Its Bye for now...

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Nice one Ramesh !

I found this very nice post on my friend Ramesh Roshan's Blog...

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Amazingly True Fact

Thanks Garima for forwarding me this very true fact...

"In most parts of the world they drive on the left of the road.
In India, we drive on what's left of the road."

Cheers