This was a pretty hectic weekend coz this is my last one here. And I must say that finally I have begun liking London a lot. Although this place has a very unfavorable exchange rate (but then which country gives us a poistive one!!). Well and the people here are good. I mean though people say that London is one of the more rascist cities,yet I am yet to experience any.
So this weekend started with Friday eveing wherein I went to meet a friend of mine (chuchu) and help him shift to his new apartment After that we went to an Indian Restaurant and had a huge sumptuous dinner.
Saturday morning, I got up early and along with the fellow "Backpacker Bankers!" went to Wimbledon. We did not quite know the way and so we got off quite early and thus had to walk for like 3 hrs to finally get to the "All England Club" aka Wimbledon. But to our utter dismay it was closed for visitors as a Davis Cup match ws goign on. But we somehow :) managed to get in a get a glimpse of the centre court (from outside) and also went to the Wimbledon shop(which like all other were prohibitive expensive and with pathetic and shady clothes and accessories!!)
From there we started our journey towards none other than the Southall and beleive me, it was the most awesome journey here in London. I mean the moment we landed in Southall (which was very very far away), we were greeted with words in Punjabi with hoarding in punjabi and with all the sardars there and their wifes i bright churidars and the cars playing Bhangra music!! It was very very surreal!! There were sweet shops and bazzar and all Indian restaurant. The supermarket inside was even more amusing. All the announcements were in HIndi and they were playing Shahrukh Khans songs!! We had chaat (AAloo papri) as well as aalloo ke paranthe in a restaurant called the Chandni chowk!!!
Also it was India Australia semi final in cricket and so there were penty of crowds outside shops with Tv and they were shoting "six six six" all over the place!!
Today (Sunday) was the most hectic of them all. Went to Windsor Castle and it was quite beautiful. It is the place where the queen stays for most parts of the year and we saw the state rooms where all guest stay. It was very very elegant.
Next went to Oxford and went on a walking tour throgh the university city. it sure had a very very youthful feeling to itself and so it was nice as well
And finally rounded up but visiting one of the oldest architecture on the face of earth. The Stonehenge. I think it was made famous by the Mincrosoft office wall paper!!! It was one of the shoddiest and ovberhyped things I have ever seen in my life. Well yeah i mean it sure has history attached to it but it was plain and simple "chuchu" architecture!!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Crazy day !!!
Hey guys!!!
Today as I lie in my bed, sans all energy or as a friend of mine likes to put it a complete “zero energy kid”, I want to say just one line
“Yesterday was the best day of my life”
I mean, yeah I have had a lot of brilliant days, which probably is because they have a huge emotional quotient attached to them, but yesterday was the most amazing day of my life in absolute terms in a long-long time!!
Yesterday was the last day of my training in the basics of finance course which is common for all verticals of analysts in Deutsche Bank. There was a test scheduled which we duly completed and were free by about 4:30pm in the evening. We were told that there would be a get-together at a place near waterloo and that we would have loads of fun there. I along with the other co-thinkers were of the view that it would be a total vella party wherein we will probably have our bosses coming over and it would turn out to be a formal party which will ultimately turn into a boozers den and so we would be totally and completely out of place there.
But we anyways went home, left our bags behind and finally reached the training value just in time to catch the last bus to the party place.
It took us bang to the centre of the city near the Big Ben and the Thames from were I could see the London eye. London eye for your information is the according to me the most atrocious eye sore in the heart of a beautiful city like London. And suddenly the bus started moving towards the eye sore. Well I was hoping for the opposite, but like most of my hopes, this went bust too and the bus stopped in front of the London eye. I was dead sure that they would take us for a ride there and then leave us like that!! So totally shattered I stated to move with group and when we were in front of the London eye, the group turned left!!!
“Drink rummy!!” were the PG Wodehouse’s words of ecstasy that flashed in my mind!! Well we took a left from there and then entered a building. And then I saw it!! They were taking us to a huge bar cum disc cum videogame parlor which was completely reserved for the Deutsche Bank employees!! It is the best videogame parlor in the whole of London right in the middle of the city and it was completely reserved for us!! Well they gave us 5 drinks coupon each along with 3 tokens each. We were damn happy with the drinks coupon but were wondering of the tokens would be enough. So I put my bankers mind into place and traded two of my drinks coupon for one token!!
That’s the thing about the place and everything!!!
Well we realized that the whole parlor was free and that WE DID NOT NEED THE TOKENS!!!
Well to top it all Deutsche Bank had arranged for food and believe me for the first time the starters were amazing!! After we had gorged most of the edibles there, we rushed to the bowling alley!! Well were Bowled like there was no tomorrow. One of the things that worked to out favor was that we people were more interested in drinking initially and so we had a field day with respect to playing. I mean we had the whole alley to each one of us!! Well the other reason for my happiness being the fact that though I am a certified bad player yet I have an awesome day scoring loads of “strikes” yesterday!!! I mean well the fact that the alley was a little shorter than usual quite contributed to my new found success!! But as they say “nothing succeeds like success!!”
After our backs were beginning to hurt by bowling so much, we moved to the next game “Foosball”. Although I had played loads of it in Sweden last year in the university there, most of my friends (Shefali in particular!!) had seen it for the first time!! So it was fun beating them hands down but it was bad when Germans played and beat us as if they were playing the biggest minnows around!! But was it fun? YEAH IT SURE WAS!!! IT was big FUN!!
Next we moved to the horse waalla videogame. In this we were jockey and had to compete with the rest in a race. Well we had to sit in a real horse kind of a structure and the harder we pulled and hit the horse with the jockey stick, the faster the horse went. We well literally had to gallop and it was damn tough and most energy sapping.
And then we had the regular big screen car racings, life-like skiing and air rifles for shooting stags and birds!! Wow it was real fun.
The good part was that the bar and the dance floor were right in the middle and so we would bump in people and see the dance and then order drinks for ourselves.
We were a little tired by then and so we resigned ourselves to the huge hefty sofas with like 300 inch flat screen and saw the butchering of England by South Africa yesterday in the rugby 2007 world cup.
We then played pool for a long-long time. Parvathy was playing for the first time and it was fun teaching her, while Shefali was trying to show off her little skills at pool (acquired while playing a couple of times in Lucknow!!).
And then we found the most amazing thing that in real terms “made the night for us!!” I mean the last time I went to Appu Ghar in Delhi was probably the last time when I sat in those electric cars where your sole motivation is to bang the other cars. Well it was sooo much fun! I mean these cars were so much better and even had seat belts and all! they had high acceleration as well as very high steering wheel sensitivity. So we could turn the cars better and could also make huge accelerations and hit the other cars with great momentum. It was fun to keep bumping into a guy car whole I just couldn’t stand!!! Well I know this sounds a little dark but yeah “but I hit the crap outta him!!” we wanted to do it all night except for the fact that there were loads of people who wanted to do it.
Well I never had sooo much fun!
As it grew late we played more and more and its nice you do that with lots of pepsi and probably beer once in a while and lemonades and with a whole lot of people. People were getting crazy right left and centre and we were having loads of fun. I mean I have always had the feeling that you enjoy the maximum in a party where everyone is drunk except for you. You see their silliness and then have a huge laugh about every thing and anything.
I personally feel that the best thing that has happened to me in a long time is getting through Deutsche Bank. I mean their HR's are so good and their policies are amazing. The people they hire are awesome and no wonder they are one of the best banks in the business. Well yesterday each one of us felt like we are a part of it and not that its just an organization which we have joined!!
Believe me it sure was probably the best day yesterday!!
I played I partied and I had a ball of a time!!
Thank you Deutsche Bank!!!!!
Today as I lie in my bed, sans all energy or as a friend of mine likes to put it a complete “zero energy kid”, I want to say just one line
“Yesterday was the best day of my life”
I mean, yeah I have had a lot of brilliant days, which probably is because they have a huge emotional quotient attached to them, but yesterday was the most amazing day of my life in absolute terms in a long-long time!!
Yesterday was the last day of my training in the basics of finance course which is common for all verticals of analysts in Deutsche Bank. There was a test scheduled which we duly completed and were free by about 4:30pm in the evening. We were told that there would be a get-together at a place near waterloo and that we would have loads of fun there. I along with the other co-thinkers were of the view that it would be a total vella party wherein we will probably have our bosses coming over and it would turn out to be a formal party which will ultimately turn into a boozers den and so we would be totally and completely out of place there.
But we anyways went home, left our bags behind and finally reached the training value just in time to catch the last bus to the party place.
It took us bang to the centre of the city near the Big Ben and the Thames from were I could see the London eye. London eye for your information is the according to me the most atrocious eye sore in the heart of a beautiful city like London. And suddenly the bus started moving towards the eye sore. Well I was hoping for the opposite, but like most of my hopes, this went bust too and the bus stopped in front of the London eye. I was dead sure that they would take us for a ride there and then leave us like that!! So totally shattered I stated to move with group and when we were in front of the London eye, the group turned left!!!
“Drink rummy!!” were the PG Wodehouse’s words of ecstasy that flashed in my mind!! Well we took a left from there and then entered a building. And then I saw it!! They were taking us to a huge bar cum disc cum videogame parlor which was completely reserved for the Deutsche Bank employees!! It is the best videogame parlor in the whole of London right in the middle of the city and it was completely reserved for us!! Well they gave us 5 drinks coupon each along with 3 tokens each. We were damn happy with the drinks coupon but were wondering of the tokens would be enough. So I put my bankers mind into place and traded two of my drinks coupon for one token!!
That’s the thing about the place and everything!!!
Well we realized that the whole parlor was free and that WE DID NOT NEED THE TOKENS!!!
Well to top it all Deutsche Bank had arranged for food and believe me for the first time the starters were amazing!! After we had gorged most of the edibles there, we rushed to the bowling alley!! Well were Bowled like there was no tomorrow. One of the things that worked to out favor was that we people were more interested in drinking initially and so we had a field day with respect to playing. I mean we had the whole alley to each one of us!! Well the other reason for my happiness being the fact that though I am a certified bad player yet I have an awesome day scoring loads of “strikes” yesterday!!! I mean well the fact that the alley was a little shorter than usual quite contributed to my new found success!! But as they say “nothing succeeds like success!!”
After our backs were beginning to hurt by bowling so much, we moved to the next game “Foosball”. Although I had played loads of it in Sweden last year in the university there, most of my friends (Shefali in particular!!) had seen it for the first time!! So it was fun beating them hands down but it was bad when Germans played and beat us as if they were playing the biggest minnows around!! But was it fun? YEAH IT SURE WAS!!! IT was big FUN!!
Next we moved to the horse waalla videogame. In this we were jockey and had to compete with the rest in a race. Well we had to sit in a real horse kind of a structure and the harder we pulled and hit the horse with the jockey stick, the faster the horse went. We well literally had to gallop and it was damn tough and most energy sapping.
And then we had the regular big screen car racings, life-like skiing and air rifles for shooting stags and birds!! Wow it was real fun.
The good part was that the bar and the dance floor were right in the middle and so we would bump in people and see the dance and then order drinks for ourselves.
We were a little tired by then and so we resigned ourselves to the huge hefty sofas with like 300 inch flat screen and saw the butchering of England by South Africa yesterday in the rugby 2007 world cup.
We then played pool for a long-long time. Parvathy was playing for the first time and it was fun teaching her, while Shefali was trying to show off her little skills at pool (acquired while playing a couple of times in Lucknow!!).
And then we found the most amazing thing that in real terms “made the night for us!!” I mean the last time I went to Appu Ghar in Delhi was probably the last time when I sat in those electric cars where your sole motivation is to bang the other cars. Well it was sooo much fun! I mean these cars were so much better and even had seat belts and all! they had high acceleration as well as very high steering wheel sensitivity. So we could turn the cars better and could also make huge accelerations and hit the other cars with great momentum. It was fun to keep bumping into a guy car whole I just couldn’t stand!!! Well I know this sounds a little dark but yeah “but I hit the crap outta him!!” we wanted to do it all night except for the fact that there were loads of people who wanted to do it.
Well I never had sooo much fun!
As it grew late we played more and more and its nice you do that with lots of pepsi and probably beer once in a while and lemonades and with a whole lot of people. People were getting crazy right left and centre and we were having loads of fun. I mean I have always had the feeling that you enjoy the maximum in a party where everyone is drunk except for you. You see their silliness and then have a huge laugh about every thing and anything.
I personally feel that the best thing that has happened to me in a long time is getting through Deutsche Bank. I mean their HR's are so good and their policies are amazing. The people they hire are awesome and no wonder they are one of the best banks in the business. Well yesterday each one of us felt like we are a part of it and not that its just an organization which we have joined!!
Believe me it sure was probably the best day yesterday!!
I played I partied and I had a ball of a time!!
Thank you Deutsche Bank!!!!!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
London:: Update#5
well yaaron!!!
Just like every beautiful morning is followed with a gloomy night and how every silver lining cloud is dark, so is my stay here!!!!
I have examss tomorrow!!
i mean egg-jam nahin!! examsss!!!!
and boss!! max course cover kiya hai!!
so all in all tough night ahead..
So will signout!
Just like every beautiful morning is followed with a gloomy night and how every silver lining cloud is dark, so is my stay here!!!!
I have examss tomorrow!!
i mean egg-jam nahin!! examsss!!!!
and boss!! max course cover kiya hai!!
so all in all tough night ahead..
So will signout!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
London!!!!!!!!!!!!! Update # 4
I don’t know why it is so tough to get up on a working day and go to office (or in my case the training centre). One of my dad ki favourite saying is
“Work expands to fill the time given!!”
Read this and think about this. All I can say is that nothing is truer than this!!! Well I will elucidate:
The first time I went to my office here in London, I got up at 6:45, got ready by 7:15 and reached there at about 8:20. The reporting time was 9:00, so I was not very early, rather bang on time for the breakfast and everything. today I got up at 8:00, got ready by 8:40 and reached my venue at about 8:55 and still had time to pack in a sandwich and a croissant on the way into my class!! Phew!!!
So well you can either call that my efficiency or the doomsayers can call this my laziness. No points for guessing that I prefer the former!!
Well today was normal as always. I mean the same classes. I wont call them dumb. I mean I know most of the stuffs but the way these guys here explain is wonderful and makes me wonder as to why we did not have them in our campuses back home. I mean I have already played two stock market simulation games : one for equity (shares) and the other one for fixed income securities(bonds) and believe me , for the first time I used concepts like yields and durations and interest rates and inflation, all in five minutes and decided upon which bonds to buy and which to sell. It was completely crazy!!
I mean in the share market, we had a tough time matching our books with the bank and even a tougher time interacting with the market maker.
Well I guess you can see the energy and enthusiasm from the way I am mentioning this and believe me it was so much fun. Well another reason for my being so happy is that my team of five made the maximum profit and we were probably the only team that had positive returns in all the scenarios!!!
So enough of this ghissu maggu stuffs. Well other than the normal things, I see a lot of couples already being made in my classrooms. Well I mean guys, its only been a week or so and these guys and girls are on the peak of their ‘impressing the others’ behavior. Well a very good friend of mine got asked out for a musical by an American (much to my anguish and anger!!!). And believe me London is a damn romantic place!!! So well so well!!
Another thing, today I managed to complete another of the famous sight seeings in London. Well, that Harrods ladies and gentlemen. Well it was huge and by huge I mean of a mammoth scale. It had all the brands of the world under one roof and looks like a proper palace!! But then probably what I did not like about that place was its size! I mean it was so huge that we did not know which way to go and which right to take. Well huge is an understatement. And this place is sure for the rich and famous. Well a slight correction. It is for the rich and famous only!!!
Where else would you get Mammoth (the extinct elephants) for like a crore or even fossils as things to keep in your drawing rooms!! Well for people who don’t know, you can order a Fighter plane in harrods and they will get it for you!!!
That’s the end of the day for me!!
I have exams in a couple of days!! But for now
Gnite and sweet dreams!!!
“Work expands to fill the time given!!”
Read this and think about this. All I can say is that nothing is truer than this!!! Well I will elucidate:
The first time I went to my office here in London, I got up at 6:45, got ready by 7:15 and reached there at about 8:20. The reporting time was 9:00, so I was not very early, rather bang on time for the breakfast and everything. today I got up at 8:00, got ready by 8:40 and reached my venue at about 8:55 and still had time to pack in a sandwich and a croissant on the way into my class!! Phew!!!
So well you can either call that my efficiency or the doomsayers can call this my laziness. No points for guessing that I prefer the former!!
Well today was normal as always. I mean the same classes. I wont call them dumb. I mean I know most of the stuffs but the way these guys here explain is wonderful and makes me wonder as to why we did not have them in our campuses back home. I mean I have already played two stock market simulation games : one for equity (shares) and the other one for fixed income securities(bonds) and believe me , for the first time I used concepts like yields and durations and interest rates and inflation, all in five minutes and decided upon which bonds to buy and which to sell. It was completely crazy!!
I mean in the share market, we had a tough time matching our books with the bank and even a tougher time interacting with the market maker.
Well I guess you can see the energy and enthusiasm from the way I am mentioning this and believe me it was so much fun. Well another reason for my being so happy is that my team of five made the maximum profit and we were probably the only team that had positive returns in all the scenarios!!!
So enough of this ghissu maggu stuffs. Well other than the normal things, I see a lot of couples already being made in my classrooms. Well I mean guys, its only been a week or so and these guys and girls are on the peak of their ‘impressing the others’ behavior. Well a very good friend of mine got asked out for a musical by an American (much to my anguish and anger!!!). And believe me London is a damn romantic place!!! So well so well!!
Another thing, today I managed to complete another of the famous sight seeings in London. Well, that Harrods ladies and gentlemen. Well it was huge and by huge I mean of a mammoth scale. It had all the brands of the world under one roof and looks like a proper palace!! But then probably what I did not like about that place was its size! I mean it was so huge that we did not know which way to go and which right to take. Well huge is an understatement. And this place is sure for the rich and famous. Well a slight correction. It is for the rich and famous only!!!
Where else would you get Mammoth (the extinct elephants) for like a crore or even fossils as things to keep in your drawing rooms!! Well for people who don’t know, you can order a Fighter plane in harrods and they will get it for you!!!
That’s the end of the day for me!!
I have exams in a couple of days!! But for now
Gnite and sweet dreams!!!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
London!!!!!: Update #3
So well having been in London for like 12 days now, I feel like I have already seen the place and that I want to come back to India. Well I know that sounds too lame and prolly u might portray me as a sissy homesick guy, but yeah guys thats the truth.
Before I start off with my complaints and sorrow, lemme tell u what I have been upto in last fortnight here. Since one of my very best friends Nijhara was leaving, since his his tenure at the DB Infy office did not get extended, so we convinced him to extend his ticket till Sunday night and decided to make the most out of the 2 days we had!!
So we started on our hectic two day extravaganza!!
This extravaganza prolly started a little early when we celebrated his birthday on the 6th night of September. Well it was nice with a makeshift cake consisting of Muffins and some sweet bread poured with some chocolate sauce. Well our efforts were well paid for by Nijhara who treated us in an Indian restaurant. Believe me Roasted Chicken and kadai chicken taste at least a hundred times better in London!!!!
Yeah ! So we started off next day with Buckingham palace. Well we were supposed to reach there at 10:45 and were to witness the famed “change of guards”. But then that what we were “supposed” to do!! In real life just like in alien life, things don’t quite happen the way they are supposed to. So we finally managed to reach Buckingham palace by 12:45 and all we say were the Black commandoes donning the gates. So we chucked it (sounds better) and decided to take a 15 pound tour of the palace. Well it was probably the most well spent 15 pounds that weekend!!! :-)
Well but I have to mention this. When we went to the counter, there was atleast a 1 hour waiting, but we managed to beat that by taking the ticket from a guy selling them outside!! Well that happens at all the places in London. You can either buy them at the main gate or but them from these tourist companies. In these tours companies there is no line and the tickets are cheaper. I always wonder why common sense is so uncommon!! Imagine standing for an hour when you don’t even havta stand for a minute!!!
So we went inside the Buckingham Palace and believe me it was very dazzling. Well our worst fears were realized when we saw the signs of “No photographs”. So well all that I have of the Buckingham palace are the memories. Well the palace just makes you wonder at the richness of the royalty here. So we completed the tour in about and hour and half in which we thoroughly enjoyed the audio commentary and after a 15 minute look at the souvenir shop (from which we obviously bought nothing), we proceeded to our next conquest: the London eye!!
Our journey to the London eye was quite interesting though. We had been to it before, but Nijhara suggested a different route. Being the veteran here, we decided to take his route, which happened to be prolly the longer one. So we were trying to pull his leg and bantering around that”he did not wuite know the ways n all” and then it happened. What happened? Well for the first time in the last 7 years I know him, I saw Nijhara lose his temper. He he he he!!! But then yaar who Nijhara hai and it wasn’t long before he was back in his elements!!!
So we carried on to the lOndon eye!! And there we saw the actual Saturday crowd!! Its wasn’t any better than a chandni chowk or something!!!so we decided to chuck it and go to he oxford circus and the Piccadilly circus which are the main shopping street in London! Well and they were such eye openers. London (for non knower) is an expensive city, but like any other in the world, it is really cheap if you know the places. So we went to a big mall which was very posh but could give Big bazaar a run for its money when it came to pricing issues. So we happily shopped for a couple of hours. Well when I say shopped I mean future shopped TM (wherein Future Shopped mean selecting stuffs that you will shop in the future!!!! :--)
One thing that I forgot to mention was that we wanted to go to London eye at about 7:30ish. This is because the entire rotation at the London eye takes about 30-45 minutes and we wanted to get a view of the entire London durig day, at sunset and finally at night with all the city lighted. And that exactly what we did. By the time we got to the London eye from Piccadilly, the queue had decreased tremendously and there was nearly a zero time wait!!
Well the experience at the London eye can at best be mentioned as Average. This is because there were no clear marks as to what is where in terms of direction. Also I think the height of London eye is pretty average. The 18 pound ticket made it even harder to digest the ride. Well if I were the credit rating company I would probably rate this as a junk ride!!!!
Also if I compare it with the Eiffel tower, it pales like crazy. I mean I would rate the Eiffel as one of the best moments of my life and the London eye as prolly the most ridiculously chuchu moment of my life!!!
So we reached back home pretty late and decided to doze off early as we had to pack nijhara’s last minute packing and whatever else that was there. So the next day we took off to the oxford circus first, as we had to but a bag and from there we went to the days big attraction “MADAMME Tussads”. Since we did not have a lot of time, we decided to hurry off to the museum. And this place is again which quite justified its 18 pound ticket!! Well I mean this was probably the closest I could get to celebrities like Beckham, Leo, JLo and spiderman. The wax figures look so real that its nearly unnerving at times. My favorite here was Captain Jack Sparrow. Well they had designed a fully pirate ship and it was like standing next to the Captain himself!! Well but with good things come the bad ones and the wax figure of Shahrukh khan and Mr. Bacchan were huge disappointments. Well they looked so very fake !!!!
So that’s all I did over the weekend!!!
Will follow up with more updates!!
Till then
Cheers!!!!
Before I start off with my complaints and sorrow, lemme tell u what I have been upto in last fortnight here. Since one of my very best friends Nijhara was leaving, since his his tenure at the DB Infy office did not get extended, so we convinced him to extend his ticket till Sunday night and decided to make the most out of the 2 days we had!!
So we started on our hectic two day extravaganza!!
This extravaganza prolly started a little early when we celebrated his birthday on the 6th night of September. Well it was nice with a makeshift cake consisting of Muffins and some sweet bread poured with some chocolate sauce. Well our efforts were well paid for by Nijhara who treated us in an Indian restaurant. Believe me Roasted Chicken and kadai chicken taste at least a hundred times better in London!!!!
Yeah ! So we started off next day with Buckingham palace. Well we were supposed to reach there at 10:45 and were to witness the famed “change of guards”. But then that what we were “supposed” to do!! In real life just like in alien life, things don’t quite happen the way they are supposed to. So we finally managed to reach Buckingham palace by 12:45 and all we say were the Black commandoes donning the gates. So we chucked it (sounds better) and decided to take a 15 pound tour of the palace. Well it was probably the most well spent 15 pounds that weekend!!! :-)
Well but I have to mention this. When we went to the counter, there was atleast a 1 hour waiting, but we managed to beat that by taking the ticket from a guy selling them outside!! Well that happens at all the places in London. You can either buy them at the main gate or but them from these tourist companies. In these tours companies there is no line and the tickets are cheaper. I always wonder why common sense is so uncommon!! Imagine standing for an hour when you don’t even havta stand for a minute!!!
So we went inside the Buckingham Palace and believe me it was very dazzling. Well our worst fears were realized when we saw the signs of “No photographs”. So well all that I have of the Buckingham palace are the memories. Well the palace just makes you wonder at the richness of the royalty here. So we completed the tour in about and hour and half in which we thoroughly enjoyed the audio commentary and after a 15 minute look at the souvenir shop (from which we obviously bought nothing), we proceeded to our next conquest: the London eye!!
Our journey to the London eye was quite interesting though. We had been to it before, but Nijhara suggested a different route. Being the veteran here, we decided to take his route, which happened to be prolly the longer one. So we were trying to pull his leg and bantering around that”he did not wuite know the ways n all” and then it happened. What happened? Well for the first time in the last 7 years I know him, I saw Nijhara lose his temper. He he he he!!! But then yaar who Nijhara hai and it wasn’t long before he was back in his elements!!!
So we carried on to the lOndon eye!! And there we saw the actual Saturday crowd!! Its wasn’t any better than a chandni chowk or something!!!so we decided to chuck it and go to he oxford circus and the Piccadilly circus which are the main shopping street in London! Well and they were such eye openers. London (for non knower) is an expensive city, but like any other in the world, it is really cheap if you know the places. So we went to a big mall which was very posh but could give Big bazaar a run for its money when it came to pricing issues. So we happily shopped for a couple of hours. Well when I say shopped I mean future shopped TM (wherein Future Shopped mean selecting stuffs that you will shop in the future!!!! :--)
One thing that I forgot to mention was that we wanted to go to London eye at about 7:30ish. This is because the entire rotation at the London eye takes about 30-45 minutes and we wanted to get a view of the entire London durig day, at sunset and finally at night with all the city lighted. And that exactly what we did. By the time we got to the London eye from Piccadilly, the queue had decreased tremendously and there was nearly a zero time wait!!
Well the experience at the London eye can at best be mentioned as Average. This is because there were no clear marks as to what is where in terms of direction. Also I think the height of London eye is pretty average. The 18 pound ticket made it even harder to digest the ride. Well if I were the credit rating company I would probably rate this as a junk ride!!!!
Also if I compare it with the Eiffel tower, it pales like crazy. I mean I would rate the Eiffel as one of the best moments of my life and the London eye as prolly the most ridiculously chuchu moment of my life!!!
So we reached back home pretty late and decided to doze off early as we had to pack nijhara’s last minute packing and whatever else that was there. So the next day we took off to the oxford circus first, as we had to but a bag and from there we went to the days big attraction “MADAMME Tussads”. Since we did not have a lot of time, we decided to hurry off to the museum. And this place is again which quite justified its 18 pound ticket!! Well I mean this was probably the closest I could get to celebrities like Beckham, Leo, JLo and spiderman. The wax figures look so real that its nearly unnerving at times. My favorite here was Captain Jack Sparrow. Well they had designed a fully pirate ship and it was like standing next to the Captain himself!! Well but with good things come the bad ones and the wax figure of Shahrukh khan and Mr. Bacchan were huge disappointments. Well they looked so very fake !!!!
So that’s all I did over the weekend!!!
Will follow up with more updates!!
Till then
Cheers!!!!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
London Update#2
Well three days of training in London and I am already beginning to feel the pressure (well both mental but mainly physical!!!). I am beginning to feel if I can last the entire month or not. Its been a strenuous three days. I never knew I was such a no networking guy. I mean I always thought that for me talking to new people is like a piece of cake. But I am sorry to say that even my own analysis of myself is so flawed!!!! So while a lot of people from dozens of country were networking away to glory, I was with my group of like minded people( also known as Indian from Mumbai office!!!)
So the first day of induction went off pretty fine with all the top shots making a speech and telling us how important we are into their scheme of things(which also included the fact that their stocks of DB which they get as the salary depended on how we moved the compny!!). so there were nice and long speeches by one and all. After surviving the 8 hours of grueling one way interactions aka speeches, we weren’t sure by the end of the day if we were living being or totally exhausted automatons!! But one thing that we ere sure of was that—“we will explore London!!!”. and so we went to the all famous 10 downing street, the big Ben and the London eye!! London as a place has history attached to every nook and corner of the city and so it is actually very tough to say which place is more beautiful han the other. But I must tell you. The London eye is a bi eye sore. It is probably uglier that the glass pyramid outside Louvre in paris. Believe me. When I was in paris I wanted to stone the goddamn thing down. And while here all I wanted was to pull it down and cut the god forsaken thing into pieces!!! Well enough said and done. But I will probably shell out the 35 pounds and go on top of it!! Also in the plan is to visit the madame tussads mockery of all celebs!!! :D
Well that was about the first day!! Last two days were CSR community work of building the fences and playground for a primary school in a damn shady area of London!! well its pretty weird. But when I say shady areas of London, I mean the ones inhabitated by Indians, Asians or blacks!! So does that make me rascist!! Well I don’t know if I am but all I can say is that its ironical enough!!!
Getting back to the topic. I can personally guarantee you that I have never worked harder than the past two day. and by work I mean hard physical torture!! I mean lying now in bed I really cant move a limb and am worried if my back will survive or give away to the weak force of gravity!! But I am damn satisfied. Well the kids were damn happy and so were the school staff and that made me feel like I have done something worthwhile. But I think more than that the fact that I worked with saws, chisels, all kinds of electric driller and gadgets really feel like I have done and learnt something worthwhile!! Well I can say that though I am an engineer by degree I am certain I wouldn’t have used all those things ever even once. It was fun wearing paint shoes and latex gloves and painting the fence after erecting. And how we dried the wood and worked as a team with a lot of people I did not know!!!
It was damn fun. Well I want to write much much more but my laptos battery had given away and my limbs dont quite allow me to put the charger.
So I am probably gonna call it a day!!!
Bye..!!!
So the first day of induction went off pretty fine with all the top shots making a speech and telling us how important we are into their scheme of things(which also included the fact that their stocks of DB which they get as the salary depended on how we moved the compny!!). so there were nice and long speeches by one and all. After surviving the 8 hours of grueling one way interactions aka speeches, we weren’t sure by the end of the day if we were living being or totally exhausted automatons!! But one thing that we ere sure of was that—“we will explore London!!!”. and so we went to the all famous 10 downing street, the big Ben and the London eye!! London as a place has history attached to every nook and corner of the city and so it is actually very tough to say which place is more beautiful han the other. But I must tell you. The London eye is a bi eye sore. It is probably uglier that the glass pyramid outside Louvre in paris. Believe me. When I was in paris I wanted to stone the goddamn thing down. And while here all I wanted was to pull it down and cut the god forsaken thing into pieces!!! Well enough said and done. But I will probably shell out the 35 pounds and go on top of it!! Also in the plan is to visit the madame tussads mockery of all celebs!!! :D
Well that was about the first day!! Last two days were CSR community work of building the fences and playground for a primary school in a damn shady area of London!! well its pretty weird. But when I say shady areas of London, I mean the ones inhabitated by Indians, Asians or blacks!! So does that make me rascist!! Well I don’t know if I am but all I can say is that its ironical enough!!!
Getting back to the topic. I can personally guarantee you that I have never worked harder than the past two day. and by work I mean hard physical torture!! I mean lying now in bed I really cant move a limb and am worried if my back will survive or give away to the weak force of gravity!! But I am damn satisfied. Well the kids were damn happy and so were the school staff and that made me feel like I have done something worthwhile. But I think more than that the fact that I worked with saws, chisels, all kinds of electric driller and gadgets really feel like I have done and learnt something worthwhile!! Well I can say that though I am an engineer by degree I am certain I wouldn’t have used all those things ever even once. It was fun wearing paint shoes and latex gloves and painting the fence after erecting. And how we dried the wood and worked as a team with a lot of people I did not know!!!
It was damn fun. Well I want to write much much more but my laptos battery had given away and my limbs dont quite allow me to put the charger.
So I am probably gonna call it a day!!!
Bye..!!!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
London!!!! Update #1
So what happens when you land up in the city that is the most talked about city in the world. Arguably the most beautiful city in the word and is definitely unchallenged leader when you talk about history attached to it. Being an Indian, and probably more coz am from a place just south of Punjab, I cant escape the aura that surrounds LONDON.
Well my favoutite self made joke is that the national anthem of UK is changing. Its gonna be “Mundiya tu bach ke rahee”. Well but yeah I am not joking.
So while it never a happy feeling to leave Zurich airport, but well this time there was some anticipations and a feeling of something to look forward to. So I really did not mind the Air Dhakkan flight aka Swiss Air flight from Zurich to London. I did not mind the upright position that I sat through (since there was no leg space), and I did not mind the really freaky sandwich that these guys gave to me. But well I really cant complain coz even while doing that the swiss were extending a happy smile.
So we finally landed Heathrow at about 8:30 in the evening which was about an hour later than scheduled. Well but if you guys thought that it was any issue, well you guys can wait for more. We went for immigration and when we saw the huge line for the non-Euro residents, we estimated the waiting time in the line to be about 45 mins to 1 hour. But if you thought that my MBA engineering background would probably enhance my estimation skills then you are as wrong as the person who thinks that every night the sun sinks in the sea!!!
Well so began our endless ordeal in the line for emigration. Well this wait not just tires the hell outta us but also tickled the wry humor vein in us. We came with cetain questions like:
1) the euro line was pretty small. And there was a non euro line(which was understandably huge). So where do the Americans go from?
2) Does sharukh kahan and karan johar stand in the same queue as us?
3) Can we dress up old ladies so that we can break the queue?
4) How do people come for their holidays here if you have to stand that long for iimgration
5) Finally if they do our body checking can we protest for sexual harassment( he he ehehe he he ..that is supposed to be funny)
So after 3 hours!!! 3 hours in a hot and small room with luggage and in lines in zigzag manner we finally managed to get our rendezvous with the immigration officer. Well, and when we were about to probably vent out our anger/ true emotions, the officer gauged our emotions and offered his heartfelt apologies and a wonderful smile. And this really took a lot of things out from our head. So we rushed out only to find our baggage’s dumped from the conveyor belt and into the ground. So far so good.
We had a lot of luggage so we decided to take a cab and having managed to target a cab we dumped 4 people’s luggage inside and sat inside all crouched up and totally sans breathing space.
And then I was in delhi!!!!
Believe me.. London is just like delhi. The roads are like delhi. The light on the roads are like those in delhi. The sign posts on the roads are like those in delhi and most importantly the people are all Indians.so the feeling is of being in India again!!!
So finally I managed to reach my place that DB that assigned to me. Paid the cab waala about 90 pounds which included a 5 pound tip. And then I entered my house. It is a 5 star apartment with everything that I ever wanted in it. Well for starters a 30 inch plasma screen ith a dvd, dis washer, washing machine and a dryer and everything else. Most of it I loved my attached bathroom and the wi fi!!!!
Well I finally slept off in the huge double bed with a sense of pride at having joined a place of work that I think I really respect for the opportunities that they are/have provided.!!!!
before i sign out i want to tell you one thing
I think out of all the places and countries I have seen, i think i find London the most livable, lively and enthusiatic country. this is the only country that i probably feel safe in. And this is the only country that I travel around without a passport in my front pocket. its beautiful, both the people and the city, both the sense as well as the atmosphere. this place might rank high in rascism and discrimination against asians but still has a very nice feel attached to it.
Thats why I think so many people have adopted this place as their motherhood and now i know i can appreciate and respect their feelings!!!
End of day 1 in London!!
Well my favoutite self made joke is that the national anthem of UK is changing. Its gonna be “Mundiya tu bach ke rahee”. Well but yeah I am not joking.
So while it never a happy feeling to leave Zurich airport, but well this time there was some anticipations and a feeling of something to look forward to. So I really did not mind the Air Dhakkan flight aka Swiss Air flight from Zurich to London. I did not mind the upright position that I sat through (since there was no leg space), and I did not mind the really freaky sandwich that these guys gave to me. But well I really cant complain coz even while doing that the swiss were extending a happy smile.
So we finally landed Heathrow at about 8:30 in the evening which was about an hour later than scheduled. Well but if you guys thought that it was any issue, well you guys can wait for more. We went for immigration and when we saw the huge line for the non-Euro residents, we estimated the waiting time in the line to be about 45 mins to 1 hour. But if you thought that my MBA engineering background would probably enhance my estimation skills then you are as wrong as the person who thinks that every night the sun sinks in the sea!!!
Well so began our endless ordeal in the line for emigration. Well this wait not just tires the hell outta us but also tickled the wry humor vein in us. We came with cetain questions like:
1) the euro line was pretty small. And there was a non euro line(which was understandably huge). So where do the Americans go from?
2) Does sharukh kahan and karan johar stand in the same queue as us?
3) Can we dress up old ladies so that we can break the queue?
4) How do people come for their holidays here if you have to stand that long for iimgration
5) Finally if they do our body checking can we protest for sexual harassment( he he ehehe he he ..that is supposed to be funny)
So after 3 hours!!! 3 hours in a hot and small room with luggage and in lines in zigzag manner we finally managed to get our rendezvous with the immigration officer. Well, and when we were about to probably vent out our anger/ true emotions, the officer gauged our emotions and offered his heartfelt apologies and a wonderful smile. And this really took a lot of things out from our head. So we rushed out only to find our baggage’s dumped from the conveyor belt and into the ground. So far so good.
We had a lot of luggage so we decided to take a cab and having managed to target a cab we dumped 4 people’s luggage inside and sat inside all crouched up and totally sans breathing space.
And then I was in delhi!!!!
Believe me.. London is just like delhi. The roads are like delhi. The light on the roads are like those in delhi. The sign posts on the roads are like those in delhi and most importantly the people are all Indians.so the feeling is of being in India again!!!
So finally I managed to reach my place that DB that assigned to me. Paid the cab waala about 90 pounds which included a 5 pound tip. And then I entered my house. It is a 5 star apartment with everything that I ever wanted in it. Well for starters a 30 inch plasma screen ith a dvd, dis washer, washing machine and a dryer and everything else. Most of it I loved my attached bathroom and the wi fi!!!!
Well I finally slept off in the huge double bed with a sense of pride at having joined a place of work that I think I really respect for the opportunities that they are/have provided.!!!!
before i sign out i want to tell you one thing
I think out of all the places and countries I have seen, i think i find London the most livable, lively and enthusiatic country. this is the only country that i probably feel safe in. And this is the only country that I travel around without a passport in my front pocket. its beautiful, both the people and the city, both the sense as well as the atmosphere. this place might rank high in rascism and discrimination against asians but still has a very nice feel attached to it.
Thats why I think so many people have adopted this place as their motherhood and now i know i can appreciate and respect their feelings!!!
End of day 1 in London!!
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