Hibernation

BLOG is under Hibernation
due to time constraint posed by
establishment of Nipro India medical device factory
at Shirwal, Pune.

Twitter, Face book have occupied part of my
cyber space.

Who do you work for ?

Who do you work for ?
1.Do you work to help your boss to accomplish his objectives ?
2.Do you work to justify the money that you get from your organization ?
3.Do you work to enhance your skills and persona that will fetch you more money in the same or another organization ?
4.Do you work to make tangible difference around you and leave a legacy for the next generation ?
If I were to think of all the above options. It would perhaps be in the order of 3, 2, 1, 4 fitting from age group of 20's to 50's. My choice of choosing a career in medical field mainly stemmed from the fact that it gave me chance to travel, have great food and drink , rub shoulders with intelligent doctors and diligent health care workers, grow younger keeping abreast with new technology, empathize with body and emotions - a fundamental ingredient of human existence. How wonderful this journey has been ! I am as excited today as I was when I started my career learning about Ultrasound.

Dealing with Drukard

How does one deal with a man who is drunk but not misbehaving. I sympathized with this man in Red T shirt who went on drooling with his story of 'Dhich kyaoon ' - a sound of gun from Hindi Movie. All young lass from North East coped with him as best they could. After all , he must have been regular face to this bar. He kept his ID in his front pocket but dangling strap around his beck that had print mark DRDO gave his identity. A foolish move but then again you can't blame a guy who is tipsy.

I am not familiar with the map of Hyderabad but now is the time to get one and check distance from airport to hotel. Inside Hi Tech city was like being in Singapore. Westin was luxurious. I must switch to them from Marriott.

Golden India

Saturday : In air : Frankfurt Mumbai
Some sunahara gyan from who heads gold trading of Canadian bank. India is world's biggest importer of gold. She import and consumes close to 900 tons per year and our gold import bill is next to oil. Even Dubai be around 200 tons and that too bulk of it is exported. His major customers are Zaveri Bazar, Laxmi Road. A big jewelry shop would house at least few hundred Kgs just on display. Nearly 12 banks are in the business of this trading. With price being uniform ; service, payment terms and relationship must be variables that would differentiate one trader from the other.

US interest is zero percent, stock and bond market crashing, western countries economy tottering , real estate price defeating. People who hoards the money need a place to park. No other option than gold. Result gold prices are going up and up. I kept on thinking, can this gold asset of India not be channeled in economy ? Answer lied in various gold loan schemes that are promoted.

This man who possessed golden knowledge had penchant for vodka to liqueur, after gulping few shots he snored his way to long sleep. His dangling thick gold bracelet, ring studded with diamonds and his stout physical frame reminding me of representative from Pune who shot to fame with his gold dangling.

Hotel Hassles

Sunday : Mumbai/Pune
All hotels while check in take pre -authorization yet while checking out, they again swipe the card , take a print out , ask for your signature and take another printout and fish out for an envelope to present customer his copy , in between make a call (perhaps housekeeping dept to check if all room belonging are intact). All these sequence of events don't happen in US hotels - at least in Marriott. They just swipe the card at the beginning, last day of the check out slip in the bill copy to the room and that's it. You inform them at check out and 'Bye' . In my previous visit to US, I asked the front office person and he said ' of course, we are business hotel, we don't waste time '.

At 2am, at Marriott Courtyard, Mumbai, front office was manned by just one staff and he took his time to attend to the customer till he turned out to me. I waited with mix of impatience counting the minutes of precious sleep that I would be wasting after traveling 20 hours.

Just before Hinjewadi, O hotel has a huge hoarding highlighting Pune and Goa hotels with customer care telephone number in massive digits. When I called thus number seeking information on Goa Property, pleasant sounding lady kept me hold for some time and then offered me their Goa number to get information. By afternoon, I called up Marriott Courtyard to speak to a person with whom I had talked twice. His colleague picked up the stating that his away on a meeting and offering me his mobile to call him again. I started wondering if this is the norm to ask customer call up. I was relieved when our customer care. Lady responded with ' please give me your number, I will call you again'. Both O hotel and Marriott must have spent substantial money on hoarding and training but missed out on small yet relevant responses to customers.

HP board chose another successor within a year. A company that once ranked top for ' attracting and retaining the talent' can't spot in house talent and make wrong choice every time But not bad for a person who even gets exit package after a year of bad performance

With 'Go Air '

This was my first experience with Go Air. Flight was New Delhi - Pune. Business class was just the normal seat on the first row but with handheld i-pod, packed lunch and custom made tea. Not a bad deal when the price was better than Kingfisher. Aircraft was Airbus 320, spacious with friendly crew.

As i took to my seat, pilot arrived in with young girl - his daughter. He introduced her to flight crew and she took a seat on second row. So far so good. But when aircraft was taxing away for take-off, she was quietly ushered inside the flight cockpit with curtain briskly pulled aside and back in place in jiffy. Through acrylic glass window ahead of me, ' crew only' plate stamped on the door of the cockpit became more prominent. My fellow passenger was amused and kept protruding his neck to see how this smart and suave looking girl was invited by equally smart crew and was made to disappear behind the curtain. He had no idea about strong filial connection she enjoyed with her dad.

I was bit squirmed by this event. Is such an act permissible? What if he gets engrossed into personal chat with her contributing to momentary lapse on his job? The thought was scary and I brushed it aside as one of the unwritten perks accorded to those vested with ' special power' in Indian working conditions. But his act was unprofessional. Would pilot in Singapore airlines ever take such a liberty and risk ? I doubt. This one incident cast a blot in otherwise fine journey on Go Air.

Rumlang

'Oerlikon' took me to a name ' Advani Oerlikon ' that was based in Pune. I have vague memory of they manufacturing 'welding electrodes' but I could be wrong. Over the years, Advani has disappeared but resurfaced again when we got down at 'Oerlikon' railway station to proceed to 'Rumlang'- our first destination of 10 day vacation in Switzerland.

No matter how frequently I travel or study before I travel, first day at the new destination is invariably 'faux pah'. I had used google map to find out train from Zurich airport to Rumlang. Why train ? because we had Swiss pass and wanted to use it. After clicking train, route gave me two trains with a stopover at 'Oerlikon'. We got down at a station which was no bigger than ' Talegaon' but with no signboards for 'Rumlang' and having a big suitcase, we decided to take a cab. Cabbie turned out to be from Ghana - who had studied in Mumbai and stayed in Juhu over 30 years ago. " Holiday Inn Express , Rumlang ' ? That's next to the airport !!!!... It took 50 CHF to reach a hotel , from whose window we could see planes taking off. ' Most foreign travelers do same mistake, they come to Holiday Inn city instead of Rumlang', he pacified me. But after a while I realized my folly. Google Map provides three options, Car, Tram and Train. I didn't pay attention to the subtle pictorial difference between Train and Tram.

Anyway, we reach Holiday Inn Express , Rumlang and realize that they provide free shuttle to airport and city. A big gain at the loss of no utilization of Swiss pass.