This is the most exciting thing that happened to me in the last week. I bought a Trek 'Navigator 100' bicycle. This whole buying process was so painful, and I did not think buying a cycle was this hard! As is the practice of the educated, I did the research, and found out that there is not really a bike that I can read on the Internet and go buy....it's all about the comfort and feel it when you ride it...... and that's why most shops let you take a test ride(mind it its not a car, not even a motorbike, a cycle....but that's the way it works here!).
So, it took me 3 days and 3 shops before I bought my Navigator. It is a comfort bike, which is most suited for the road, but can also do a li'l bit of trail riding. It fits my requirements perfect.
Living in California, I think its a good deal. I get to do so many things in one.....take in the weather, get some job done while also getting some exercise and ya....save some gas and be good to the environment!
My longest trip on the Navigator has been a 14mile loop on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. We did the strectch from Campbell to Los Gatos. This entire strectch was fully paved, the most suited for the kinda tires I have. This trail runs through 3 parks and goes all the way upto Santacruz. It tooks us about 2 hours round trip.
Waiting to cruise more this summer!
Friday, May 26, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
Some of my experiences while in India
It has been about 3 weeks here back in the US and here are some of my experiences in the last 6 months. I quite naturally looked at many things in India with a Western eye only because most of my independent thinking has been influenced by my exposure to the world out of India.
To start of...here's the story of my trip to London from Bangalore...
It was February and I was looking forward to my trip to London to meet my husband who was flying from the US and was really excited about meeting him midway and the entire vacation itself. Since my flight was landing earlier than his, the initial plan was I meet him in London at our hotel room! So my flight was from Bangalore to London via Delhi.
At the Bangalore airport they told me my luggage was through check-in, which the way I understood was that I worry about my luggage only when I get to my destination – but no you’re wrong! It means you would have to collect your luggage in Delhi…. get to the International Airport in a bus which travels approximately 30mts, pass Customs and recheck in at Delhi again! Since I got this straight in Bangalore itself, I had 2.5 hrs to let this sink in and prepare myself for this. So once I was in Delhi, I went straight to the baggage claim, picked up my luggage, and wrote down my name on a book waiting for one of the guards to yell out my name loud. After waiting for about 20mts, the bus finally arrived, and I boarded it. It took the bus (app. 20mts for the 5kms between the airports) and here I am at the entrance of the International airport.
Now at the Delhi airport I looked around for a trolley for my suitcases when I see the crowd around me getting all excited suddenly. While I browse around to see what's going on I realize this….If you need a trolley at the Delhi airport you have to first position yourself very close to the place from where they bring these trolleys and when you see that guy at a distance, you have to get on your feet and literally “snatch” a trolley for yourself, which is what I did too!
So, now I had about 4 hrs for my flight to London and I had to clear immigration, customs before I get to my gate. I decided to get past these quick so I can get to the gate soon and may be even get a couple of hours of sleep before I board the flight. I finished all the formalities and was waiting to get to the gate, and I notice this huge crowd of people of nearly 500 standing in line. Unmindful of them, I looked at the monitors, figured my Gate No. and was trying to get a sneak peek of my gate, which is when I realize the 500 odd people were actually waiting to get inside the gates as well! I was extremely frustrated and it was 12:30 in the morning ! The rest of the people in the line shared the same frustration, but what can you do? Only rumble and mumble about it!!
To digress a li'l.....I find this interesting every time I am at a public service office where things are almost all the time inefficient, and you are getting frustrated by the way things happen. But you notice when you get to the counter, that you seem like an idiot, posing all practical and stern and rude because you are unhappy about the way things are going on, but the clerk (who almost always likes to give you the look that your life is in his hands) in his/her own casual way totally unmindful of the line that he/she sees in front of her, is busy chatting with his/her colleague about something utterly important other than work that he has being paid to do!
Anyway....getting back to the airport scene, I successfully get through the gate and into the flight. The flight was just about ready to take off, when the pilot announces that the fog is starting to settle and the flight will not take off until the fog clears about 500 mts(I think), which is recommended. Though fog in February is a li'l unusual, it is very prevalent in Delhi and we all read about it every winter season. So, I wait there thinking it’ll only be a couple of hours – after all being in India you’ve to be optimistic – talking to my husband every now and then giving him updates. We were served dinner and most of us went to sleep. I woke up around 6am in the morning, hoping to be half way towards London, but the flight hadn’t taken off and there I was still in Delhi. The fog had got worse and none of the flights had left. My scare now was the fiasco that would happen at the airport if passengers from all these flights were put in hotels and rescheduled on a later flight – and of course the fact that you wouldn’t want to be thinking about all this when you are going on a vacation!
Anyway, we were told that the condition would be reassessed by around 11:00 am and a decision would then be made on whether the flight would be rescheduled or not. Fortunately near about 9:30, the fog cleared and we were at last going to be in air! Those were the longest 8hrs I have ever experienced! The Jet Airways cabin crew definitely needs a mention here. Hat's off to their wonderful service, and for really feeling apologetic for the way things had worked out, for no reason of theirs. The only shining star at the end of all this chaos..... I got to meet my husband at the airport itself, who had no idea what had happened to my flight, because from the last update I had given him just before his flight took off was that my flight could be cancelled, so be prepared for it!
All’s well that end’s well….but now, the reason behind all this confusion – lack of expertise among Indian pilots to take off and land when it is dense fog. This requires using some very expensive apparatus, which apparently the Airport Authority of India has bought but has left rusting because of lack of interest in airline carriers to train pilots becasue it involved huge amounts of money. It agree that it is impractical to spend money to the tune of 12 lakhs to train all pilots hired, but I believe that the Indian Govt. should relax rules so as to encourage pilots to qualify for the ILS(instrument landing system) training. With India on the globalization road, and with immense number of people travelling nowadays, I think the Govt. needs to take a second look. It makes sense if this was a problem even 6-7 yrs. back, and I would have resigned to accepting that that's the way things happen in India. But we need to change fast and move with the times especially when the whole world is eyeing India as their next biggest investment opportunity.
The IT industry has done a lot of good to the Indian middle class, and if this boom goes on for a while, who knows it might even help expand the middle class cannabalizing on the poor, which is a good sign for a developing country. The Govt. is doing the right things in policies in attracting foreign investments, but I am not sure they understand they need to do a lot more to retain them, or may I should say, atleast not in action.
To start of...here's the story of my trip to London from Bangalore...
It was February and I was looking forward to my trip to London to meet my husband who was flying from the US and was really excited about meeting him midway and the entire vacation itself. Since my flight was landing earlier than his, the initial plan was I meet him in London at our hotel room! So my flight was from Bangalore to London via Delhi.
At the Bangalore airport they told me my luggage was through check-in, which the way I understood was that I worry about my luggage only when I get to my destination – but no you’re wrong! It means you would have to collect your luggage in Delhi…. get to the International Airport in a bus which travels approximately 30mts, pass Customs and recheck in at Delhi again! Since I got this straight in Bangalore itself, I had 2.5 hrs to let this sink in and prepare myself for this. So once I was in Delhi, I went straight to the baggage claim, picked up my luggage, and wrote down my name on a book waiting for one of the guards to yell out my name loud. After waiting for about 20mts, the bus finally arrived, and I boarded it. It took the bus (app. 20mts for the 5kms between the airports) and here I am at the entrance of the International airport.
Now at the Delhi airport I looked around for a trolley for my suitcases when I see the crowd around me getting all excited suddenly. While I browse around to see what's going on I realize this….If you need a trolley at the Delhi airport you have to first position yourself very close to the place from where they bring these trolleys and when you see that guy at a distance, you have to get on your feet and literally “snatch” a trolley for yourself, which is what I did too!
So, now I had about 4 hrs for my flight to London and I had to clear immigration, customs before I get to my gate. I decided to get past these quick so I can get to the gate soon and may be even get a couple of hours of sleep before I board the flight. I finished all the formalities and was waiting to get to the gate, and I notice this huge crowd of people of nearly 500 standing in line. Unmindful of them, I looked at the monitors, figured my Gate No. and was trying to get a sneak peek of my gate, which is when I realize the 500 odd people were actually waiting to get inside the gates as well! I was extremely frustrated and it was 12:30 in the morning ! The rest of the people in the line shared the same frustration, but what can you do? Only rumble and mumble about it!!
To digress a li'l.....I find this interesting every time I am at a public service office where things are almost all the time inefficient, and you are getting frustrated by the way things happen. But you notice when you get to the counter, that you seem like an idiot, posing all practical and stern and rude because you are unhappy about the way things are going on, but the clerk (who almost always likes to give you the look that your life is in his hands) in his/her own casual way totally unmindful of the line that he/she sees in front of her, is busy chatting with his/her colleague about something utterly important other than work that he has being paid to do!
Anyway....getting back to the airport scene, I successfully get through the gate and into the flight. The flight was just about ready to take off, when the pilot announces that the fog is starting to settle and the flight will not take off until the fog clears about 500 mts(I think), which is recommended. Though fog in February is a li'l unusual, it is very prevalent in Delhi and we all read about it every winter season. So, I wait there thinking it’ll only be a couple of hours – after all being in India you’ve to be optimistic – talking to my husband every now and then giving him updates. We were served dinner and most of us went to sleep. I woke up around 6am in the morning, hoping to be half way towards London, but the flight hadn’t taken off and there I was still in Delhi. The fog had got worse and none of the flights had left. My scare now was the fiasco that would happen at the airport if passengers from all these flights were put in hotels and rescheduled on a later flight – and of course the fact that you wouldn’t want to be thinking about all this when you are going on a vacation!
Anyway, we were told that the condition would be reassessed by around 11:00 am and a decision would then be made on whether the flight would be rescheduled or not. Fortunately near about 9:30, the fog cleared and we were at last going to be in air! Those were the longest 8hrs I have ever experienced! The Jet Airways cabin crew definitely needs a mention here. Hat's off to their wonderful service, and for really feeling apologetic for the way things had worked out, for no reason of theirs. The only shining star at the end of all this chaos..... I got to meet my husband at the airport itself, who had no idea what had happened to my flight, because from the last update I had given him just before his flight took off was that my flight could be cancelled, so be prepared for it!
All’s well that end’s well….but now, the reason behind all this confusion – lack of expertise among Indian pilots to take off and land when it is dense fog. This requires using some very expensive apparatus, which apparently the Airport Authority of India has bought but has left rusting because of lack of interest in airline carriers to train pilots becasue it involved huge amounts of money. It agree that it is impractical to spend money to the tune of 12 lakhs to train all pilots hired, but I believe that the Indian Govt. should relax rules so as to encourage pilots to qualify for the ILS(instrument landing system) training. With India on the globalization road, and with immense number of people travelling nowadays, I think the Govt. needs to take a second look. It makes sense if this was a problem even 6-7 yrs. back, and I would have resigned to accepting that that's the way things happen in India. But we need to change fast and move with the times especially when the whole world is eyeing India as their next biggest investment opportunity.
The IT industry has done a lot of good to the Indian middle class, and if this boom goes on for a while, who knows it might even help expand the middle class cannabalizing on the poor, which is a good sign for a developing country. The Govt. is doing the right things in policies in attracting foreign investments, but I am not sure they understand they need to do a lot more to retain them, or may I should say, atleast not in action.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Get into my space!
For all of you out there...While I am still figuring out what I want to do with this space....you all have fun OK!
See you later!
See you later!
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