Destination UK - Part I

Dear diary
My First International Trip, my first Global Project.... Here I am sitting in London UK, writing the first part of the travelogue.

so I started on this voyage on the beautiful day of Sunday the 30th... september.. It was a morning Air India flight to London Heathrow... and luckily I got a window seat.. yippie..
hey.. no offence to anyone but Air India will be on the low ranks of beauty scale.. you know what I mean.. anyways, leave that aside..

So the flight got delayed by approximately 45 minutes and we took off at 10:45 AM.. I reached London by 03:00 PM local time. As I was travelling westward you need to adjust 04:30 hrs in total travel time. In the journey I flew over English Channel, and put my digicam to a good use. One more thing, I always use to fancy Sherlock Holmes so I bought the complete Sherlock Holmes series. I have already completed first two novels and I must say, this guy impresses.

so there I reached, in a new country at a new place for me... first thing i did was to find out from where can I get the taxi.. I found out the taxi stand and enjoyed a ride in the famous london cab. Read more about these at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage. We lost our way and the cab driver didn't know the final destination so it took us a while to reach my booked apartment. finally i was there..

Next day morning..
To the office...

A Long Break

Last few days (or months) have been quite busy for me and didn't get any time to write any blog post for long time. There are already two pending travelogues and I need some time to fill those up.

In the mean time, Happy Independence Day, Happy Rakshabandhan, Happy Birthday to Prakhar...
enjoy

Travelogue: Bangalore, Kodai

For the last few months I was getting stuck in lots of work and all I needed was a short break. And my wish was granted.

I was assigned to attend a training on Microsoft SoftGrid at MTC Bangalore in first week of July. As luck may have it, Bahadur Gabra and Richa planned to come to Bangalore at the same time. Now, my friends Kunal and Manjari who always pounce upon this kind of opportunity, came up with a quick plan for a trip to Kodaikanal... and man what a plan it was.

Gabra, Richa and I reached Bangalore airport on Friday night. I was the first one to reach so I went to Manjari's guest house. Within one hour, Gabra and Richa also reached and we were all set to leave for Kodaikanal by 4 am in the morning.

We hired a Qualis and flagged off for our destination. Four hours later, half of us were half aslepp ;). Around 08:00 am in the morning, we had a pit stop at a ethnic Tamil midway and had a good share of Idli and Sambar. Next 6-7 hours were again part of a beautiful drive on the road to Kodai. And the last leg of the drive was an awesome uphill climb on a "In the cloud" green road.


We reached Kodai, found our Hotel and checked in. And we moved on for a trip to Kodai Lake. first we planned to have a boat ride but then changed our mind. We circled around the lake on foot, then had a horse ride and finally hired bicycles for a few rounds around the lake. Kunal and Richa took a tandem cycle which was kind of funny.

And by the time we finished cycling, it was almost dark. Time for some fuel for our body and we headed for some dinner. Again some south indian food. Anyways, I survived that dinner and we went for some more shopping. After the tiring day, I had a good night of sleep.

The sun rose again next day morning and we set out to visit some toursit spots there in Kodai. After finishing these stereotypical tourist chores, we headed back to Bangalore. Reached 03:00 am in the night and guess what? I had to go for a training next day morning at 09:00 am.. I somehow managed.

You know the best part... The best part of the travel was the drive in the hills while going from Kodai to Bangalore. It offers beautiful vistas and on some occasion you go through the clouds, which is an awesome experience in itself..

So next time you are headed southwards, do pay a visit to Kodai.. it is a heaven of an experience

Travelogue: Mumbai

So, this was supposed to be my first ever official trip. And I was the chosen one along with my colleague Saurabh Diwan who was sent to attend Microsoft Techmela from HCL Comnet. Right from my day one at HCL, I have been the face of technical community at HCL. So rightfully, I was commissioned to attend this great congregation of tech gurus and tech displays.

So I reached there one day before. HCL has booked a hotel for me in Santa Cruz which was very close to the airport. However the conference venue was Hotel Renaissance in Powai.

Day One, Yours truly managed to wake up on time and reach the venue. It was a picturesque hotel with a backdrop of Powai Lake. I, being shutter friendly and having recently bought my digicam, clicked a lot. The first day started with a Keynote, followed by technology specific tracks. I won't get into those details as they may bore you to Shut Down.

Time to head home and wander in the lively city of Mumbai. This was the first time I was in Mumbai so I haven't seen much of it. Tripat and Nidhi Jalan arranged to meet me at Bandra. After losing my way twice I managed to reach there. Also went to Bandra beach. And then a trip to roadside flee market, some nice spicy chaats and time to hit the hay.

Day Two: I was delivered to the venue on time by the auto. Able to finish the day being still alive with sore thumbs and fingers while playing Forza on kiosk Xbox.

After the day was over, the real challenge was to get to some tourist like place and see something. Saurabh came to rescue and suggested about Juhu Chaupati. Hired an auto and reached there just in time that it started raining heavily. Eight O' Clock in the evening, drizzling sky and a perfect ambiance for a nice walk at the beach.

Day Three: Time to bunk the second half of the sessions. ;) Rush to Church Gate, also invite some childhood buddies and walk down Nariman Point. What a perfect setting. Then go to Gateway of India, take some photos of Hotel Taj and have a walk at Colaba flee market. Another enjoyable day


Day Four and luckily a Sunday: reached Santa Cruz station, made way to Andheri. and finally to a multiplex to watch Jhoom Barabar Jhoom! yups, such a tragic end to such a beautiful story. The story of guy who went to Mumbai first time and enjoyed first three days and ended the journey by watching such a pathetic movie!!!

Hey, as Shahrukh Khan says in Om Shanti Om - "Picture Abhi Baaki Hai Mere Dost" . So that was not the ending. Had lunch at a food court. And then, time to meet Suhas at Joggers Park. I confess, I haven't seen the movie so I wasn't expecting much. But then, it started raining and our plans to have a jog at the park were short lived. However, we had a nice tea at Irani Restaurant near Mehboob Studio. Also did some impulse shopping at Fascination (The place to buy cheap smuggled stuff. Rating: 4/5.. I got compliments from everyone in the office)

Evening time and time to get back to Delhi. A one hour date with Tripat at Balaji Cafe at the airport. and I bid adieu to Mumbai.

The week went by

The week, which is going on, is getting quite hectic for me.... So much to do, so less time.
Anyways, i sneaked some time from my schedule and I thought I should write something.

First, First Major phase of my System Centre Lifecyle Project is over now. We move to the Second Major Phase which is doubly complex and we are not very sure whether we will be able to deliver or not.

Second, I was preparing for my Windows Vista webinar. This is my first one, so I don't want to screw it up.

Not much to write about on the personal side..

And I am eagerly awaiting Monaco GP. I hope Kimi Raikkonen wins this time.

Main aur Mere One liners

• I don't want to be Kumar Gaurav, the one hit wonder
• Courtesies should be reciprocated
• Khaali Haath Ja rahe hain hum, Khaali Haath Aayenge
  
• There is an information overload, you need to filter
  
• To be a project manager, you need technical knowledge.. You need so that you can ask the right questions.
  

Note: these are thought on the spot and delivered to audience which was not very susceptible to these kind of remarks. However, I don't regret what I said.

Vista Zero Touch Webinar

Yours truly had worked on a project in partnership with Microsoft. It was a solution innovation project where our team developed a unique solution around enterprise wide Windows Vista deployment. The solution was also judged as the best solution by Microsoft. I have already given the solution presentation to 6 customers and hope to see good increase in top line.

Now, under the Microsoft Technology Community Program (TCP) , I am doing a webinar on the technology side. This will be my first webinar so will be for TCP. The webinar will be broadcasted on May 25, 2007 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM IST. I am all prepared and I hope it goes well. I will publish the webinar invitation mailer once I receive the final version.


Update: Here is the mailer

_________________________________________________________

Live Meeting Details

Click Here to Join Live Meeting


Subject: Vista Zero Touch Deployment webinar
Meeting URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join
Meeting ID: GS7SM7
Meeting Key: zerotouch
Role: Attendee

This meeting will broadcast internet audio directly to your computer.

Please ensure that you have Windows Media Player 9 or higher installed.

Conference Call Details:

US Access: 001 203 480 8000

Pass code 6339416

India Access

New Delhi Access: (011) 4422-3031 / 2654-0731

Hyderabad Access: (040) 4422-3033 / 2348-8233

Chennai Access: (044) 2831-0734 / 4422-3034

Meeting ID: 4258 2790#

PIN Code: 1878892#

Online Features:

*0 - Operator Assistance

*6 - Self Mute / Unmute

Fish!

I have just started working on a new project within my organization.
The project is related to the Fish! Philosophy which started as an initiative at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle.

The Fish! idea is all about having fun at work. It involves imbibing a fun culture in the workflow and processes so that employees enjoy their 40 hours which are spent in the otherwise boring work environment.

But it is different from Entertainment. Entertainment are temporary activities which are not done on day to day basis.

Lets see how much fun we can imbibe in our company culture :)

P.S. If have any cool/wild/whacky/weird ideas about fun@work......... pleeeeeeeeeease let us know, we are running out of ideas.