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Showing posts from June, 2007

Barcelona - A nice city indeed

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Normally first 24 hours to any new city are not always pleasant. Unknown foreign environment, suspicious over eager sellers, lack of familiar company and so on. Barcelona is one of the few cities that I enjoyed in my first 24 hours and this enjoyment remained for next 5 days. Alighting from the old Alitalia MD aircraft, Barcelona airport greeted passengers with parallel red and green lines pasted on chipped Italian tiles directing towards luggage collection. But suddenly, both colours went in opposite direction making all foreigners confused. Young girl at the reception couldn’t speak English but she came along the green line to show non Spanish speaking visitors the gate towards luggage collection. That’s where Spain differs from France. Both countries get a lot of foreign visitors but France let you know that you are a foreigner and unwelcome if you don’t know French. In Barcelona, not many know English yet they welcome you with smile and friendly demeanour. No wonder Spain is th

Amazing Creation

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Location: Tata Museum, Jamshedpur. In the first pic, you can see a painting. This was a gift to JRD Tata on his Birthday by a street artist. Nobody was able to understand his art. Unfortunately, only the painting was given to JRD and the artist had promised to reveal the secret shortly . However, JRD was no more when the secret was actually revealed. Here's the secret revealed. When you place a steel rod at the circle in the first pic you saw, you will see the image of the JRD Tata as a reflection on the steel rod as seen in the second pic below. Isn't it incredible!!

Akshta - First Laugh

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Narayan Murthy's story

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Thanks to Srinivas Deo - my friend - i came to know about this lecture given by N R Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor and Chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies, at the New York University (Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillating speech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life and career. We present it for our readers: "Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies. I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey. After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles t

Cyclone Gonu's havoc in Oman

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Having stayed in Oman over many years, i can relate to most of these places , devastated by Cyclone Gonu that rocked the coast on Oman last week. Estimate of losses already run over a billion dollar.

Raipur - A city that came on Medical Map of India

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In early 80’s I visited Raipur few times while being on business visit to Bhilai. I also did visit Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Medical college to make some sales calls. But seeing the condition of the hospital, I felt it was better to relax in a hotel and have dinner at Girnar restaurant that served fine Indian food. After seeing the infrastructure conditions of this city, it was clear that Raipur got a raw deal compared to other cities in Madhya Pradesh such as Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior. During the course of time, I did know about a new state Chattisgarh that came into existence out of MP but forgot about Raipur that became capital of this new state. On May 29th 2007, NDTV covered the news of ‘separation of surgery of 10 month old conjoined twins – Ram and Laxman ’. What surprised and stunned me that this surgery was to be performed in Raipur at Ambedkar Government Hospital. Suddenly images of cream coloured barren walls , open wooden benches and laboratory with worn out yellow stained glas

Saudi Arabia – relaxing the grip

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Kingdom Tower : Riyadh Four year ago : As soon as plane does a touchdown at Riyadh , ladies rush for their abaya (A loose, usually black robe worn, covering the body from head to toe and worn with a headscarf and veil )to cover themselves up. Two years ago: Ladies walk out of the aircraft clad in normal attire, but while standing in immigration queue, take out Abaya and start wearing it before they arrive at immigration desk. Now: They hardly bother about Abaya; go through immigration, baggage screening and customs. But as soon as they are out of the airport, they are in their ubiquitous black attire. My four day trip to Riyadh, gave me this changing impression of Saudi Arabia .Albeit at snail’s place, Saudi regime is slowly relaxing their formidable Islamic grip on the society. No more customs officials ransack bags; tear the parcels, insist on switching on laptops to look for symbols that would connote Islamic blasphemy. Immigration clerk too are relaxed. Bags go through X ray machi