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August 10 catching up...i've been slow at updating the blog & uploading the pics ... i finally managed to add some pics from the spain visit last year (most pics are of the gorgeous unfinished church ... sagrada familia) and also from the more recent trip to amsterdam & belgium.
i have so much to write about all these places ... i hope i get to it some time soon. till then, i'll let the pictures do the talking.
peace! December 18 lost in translation...Some things you appreciate only once you've experienced them yourself. The movie Lost in Translation was one such experience for me ... my recent visit to Japan made me realize the importance of a common language like English!
I sometimes get in to arguments of benefits of the British rule in India and usually get beaten up quite bad. However, one thing I still stand by is the penetration of English in to Indian culture because of English colonization of India. To avoid making this post too controversial, I would say that if you plan to visit Japan, do have a translation guide handy! I was lucky to have someone translate for me at work (except that I had to speak really really slow which being Indian is anything but natural!) but I was on my own after work and someone knowledge of Japanese would have definitely helped!
Apart from the slight language barrier, Tokyo is a rocking place to be! An amazing & sometimes disturbing juxtaposition of historical culture & techie & ultra-modern lifestyle. During the day, Japan feels super busy, formal, traditional and business like where every second matters. The Tokyo nightlife (Roppongi & Shinjuku) completely resets this image with its all night parties, super modern outlook & activities (you can guess what i'm talking about!).
Apart from their deeply mysterious & well preserved culture, one thing I would definitely go back there for is FOOD! From the freshest (& scary) Sushi/Sashimi options to the best tempuras & of course, Sake!
As this was mostly a business trip, I didn't get to see places around Tokyo but that gives me another reason to go back there:). I've added a few pics from this trip for you to experience some of this but as I said before, you have to be there to truly appreciate it! September 18 love & hate relationship...... ok this one is not about people relationships but about my relationship with london... i just love london for all it has to offer and hate it for the price you have to pay for the same!
i was down in UK for an offsite with my EMEA sales team and some customer visits. i got a weekend in between the two to spend by myself. in a week i covered Reading, Greater London, Oxford and Witney (close to Oxford)... i loved every moment of it except for the moments i had to sign the credit card slips :-)
i also got an opportunity to catch up with Mukta, a friend from undergrad school ... she showed me around oxford with a pretty good narration of the historical tidbits which make oxford what it is. mukta, in case you read this - thank you! i had a great time.
i'll let the pictures do the talking instead of boring you with my recap... enjoy! May 27 Tulip Festival at a 1000 foot level...Let me start with a 1000 foot overview of the Tulip Festival - an annual festival held in the beginning of spring at a bunch of places around the world and more commonly in US to showcase miles of beautiful tulip farms. Out of all the tulip festivals across US, the one held at Skagit Valley in the Northwest region, a 45 min - 45 mile drive from Seattle is by far the best one to attend. This region is known for its flaura & fauna and the tulip farms are no exception. See http://www.tulipfestival.org/ for more details.
For a 1000 foot view of the 2006 Tulip Festival, check out the pictures below. I had seen the tulip farms from the ground before but thanks to my buddy Pannu, I got to see them in a whole new way.
April 05 Miami & Ft. LauderdaleThere is so much I want to write about this trip but really bad time at work... hopefully I"ll get back to this some day.
Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures!
First set of pics are at Miami (mostly South Beach and some at downtown). Last set is at Ft. Lauderdale where Dhruv and I met up.
Can't wait to get back there!
January 12 Last few days at India...The last few days in the India trip were spent at Delhi ... my home ... home sweet home... with folks.
I also got a chance to catch up with Norbert (who came down from IIM Calcutta), Varun (came down from IIM Lucknow) and Dhruv (all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan!)... it was fun to meet up with them. Didn't get a chance to take much pictures 'cos the first thing we did when we met up was to go get drunk :-D
And after a few rounds of Long Island Iced Teas (or LIITs as the TGIF guy called it), it got hard to focus the camera ;-) ... so I had to steal these 4 pics from Varun's blog as it takes a lot more to get him drunk!!!
I'll keep this blog entry short 'cos now i'm back in Seattle and back at work... and Microsoft doesn't pay me to write blogs!
Dhruv/Norbert/Varun - it was great meeting up with you guys!
Cheers!
Karan
December 28 india trip...one of the few things i miss in India is the broadband availability... i just feel too lazy to upload pictures on a 128kbps connection... and yes, that is my lame excuse for not blogging for the last 2 months :-)
the india trip started out with a brief stopover at Amsterdam where i met up with an old friend - Stefanie. After catching up with some work at Microsoft Netherlands office, i got back to the hotel and then walked around Amsterdam for over 3 hours before going down to meet Stef. i usually enjoy a new city by just walking around or sitting in a coffee shop and watching people... it helps me soak in the culture, attitude and the vibes. Amsterdam has been one of the few places where i felt very comfortable despite huge crowds and tons of tourists. Check out the pics in the Amsterdam gallery...
From Amsterdam i got to New Delhi to give a surprise visit to folks... they were zapped when i reached home that night. it was well worth keeping the travel plan a secret (i usually have hard time keeping secrets)! after spending a few days at Delhi, i got back to hyderabad to catch up with work. over the course of next few weeks, i caught up with my team, remaining friends in hyderabad, the good indian food and also managed to squeeze in 2 weekend trips to delhi!
on one of these weekend trips, i went down to Patiala, Amritsar (home of Golden Temple) and Chandigarh with family (dad, mum, navneet & divya). we covered over a 1000 km and 10 families in 2 days! the best time spent was at Golden Temple (Harmindar Sahib) at Amritsar - the vibes at that place are hard to describe in words. see the attached pics of the same...
from hyderabad i got to travel to bangalore on a conference (Storage Networking Summit) where we presented my product Data Protection Manager... after spending 3 days at the conference at Leela Palace, i moved to my bro's place and spent the weekend there with navneet and divya. that was a good break from the hectic work schedule at hyderabad.
after that i spent another 2 crazy work weeks at hyderabad (with another weekend in Delhi on mum's birthday- 10 Dec) and finished off the work trip with Microsoft India's Annual Party and got back to Delhi. This trip at Delhi was short as I had to travel to Pune for a recruitment trip. In addition to the recruitment, i got a chance to catch up with Neha, Anisha & Leo. Thanks to canceled flights, i had to go to Mumbai to catch my flight for delhi. that gave me an opportunity to catch up with one of my good school friend - Nishant. We caught up on life and philosophy/ethics/morale/work over lunch and a quick drink. I then rushed to the airport to get back to Delhi.
Since then (i.e. last week), I've been at Delhi enjoying time at home with folks. Christmas was a quite affair with some family get togethers and good food. Looking forward to the New Year now...
October 05 Chicago trip...The next leg of our DPM customer experience tour took us to Chicago (after San Fran & LA .... sorry no pics from LA as we were there only for 1 day).
Apart from all the work and kudos we got from the customers at Chicago, we kicked off our shoes and let our hair down (mine literally ;-) and partied on Friday night & Saturday.
Attaching some pics from lake side... and also a video from Navy Pier where there are fire works every Saturday night - and they are beautiful!
More on the next leg of the tour (New York/New Jersey) soon...
Cheers!
Karan
September 05 San Fran Sept 05We kicked off our Customer Experience Tour yesterday and started at San Francisco. After 2 straight late nights (Fri & Sat), barely managed to get ready & get to the airport.
Took some nice pics of the San Fran coastline, airport and the bay bridge from the flight itself. I got off and met up with Vijay, who had just got in from India after missing his flight in Hyderabad. We caught up on the way to the airport and checked in to Marriott Downtown (nice hotel).
After a quick bite, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39. It is a nice place with lots of shops (some quite old) leading to the waterfront from where cruises start (see pics). We could see the Alcatraz island from the pier but decided against visiting it. We hung around there for a while, ate some chocolates :-), watched a street side performance and then took a quick cab ride to Lombard Street to see the Crooked Street. It is a small stretch of a zig-zag road that is so steep that they had to make it zig-zag for vehicles to go up & down. We hung around there for a short while and then headed out for dinner.
We took a quick recommendation from Veena and headed to Steps of Rome on Columbus street. It was an old Italian place with some authentic food. We headed back from there to the hotel to crash as Vijay was jet lagged.
Next day (today) we woke up and had a late king size breakfast. We caught a couple of games of pool at the hotel and then went back to the room to catch up some work.
We later met up with Veena and her friend Lakshmi for lunch at a Pakistani joint called Shalimar. It was a hole in the wall but the food was quite good. From there, Vijay & I headed to Meterone (a multiplex with Sony solutions shop) and spent some time looking at the new geeky gadgets. We sat outside in the park for a while (see pics) and caught up on some stuff including work (what losers we are ... i know!).
Got back to the hotel and prepared for the upcoming customer visits, some spec review, email and other work. Continued our spec discussions in to the View Lounge on the 39th floor of the hotel with some amazing views of SFO downtown.
Called it a day with this blog to be ready for tomorrow morning at 7 AM and 2 weeks of crazy travel & customer visits.
-k August 30 San Francisco... Feb 2005On my Feb 2005 trip to US, we went down to San Francisco (first time for me) to attend a focus group session for next version planning of Data Protection Manager.
On the first day, we had a couple of hours free so Vijay & I decided to go do the "patel tour" of SanFran. Check out some pics from the famous golden gate bridge.
Later in the night, Nikhil, Chris, Rakesh, Violeta & I headed to Morton's Steakhouse for a $500 dinner!!! The food & wine were definitely worth it. We hopped from there and hit a bar nearby. After a couple of drinks, we went back to the hotel (Westin?) and then Nikhil, Chris & Rakesh headed out for another round of drinks... i'll just say that & leave the rest to imagination... i know... i wish i had posted pics from the night tour of SanFran instead of the patel tour... but then...
don't worry about it... i'm heading there again this weekend and who knows... i just might have some gooood pics to share out this time ;-)
cheers!
K Singapore Trip...I was down at Singapore for Microsoft MVP Asia Summit to present my product - Data Protection Manager (www.microsoft.com/dpm). It was the first time I was at Singapore and despite the bad weather, I loved the place!
After slogging my b*** for the first few days with the presentations & demos, I finally took the last evening off to party... and boy, that was some party! Some pics that sum it all up quite well ;-)
I wish i could type my blog the way i type my mails... i'm glad i have my digital camera to my rescue! Enjoy the pics!
cheers!
karan July 27 LA tripNeed to type a lot of stuff as did a whole bunch of stuff in LA...
Posting pictures for now and will write more later! May 02 Pune trip...After a lot of planning & persuasion I finally managed to convince Nishant, Abhishek, Deepak (yeah, he too!) and Norbert to meet up in Pune. Varun joined me from Hyderabad. Got there on Friday to finish up with other stuff at Pune. Spent the latter half of Friday drinking & then meeting up with Anisha & Leo. All of us went to Thousand Oaks - a nice watering hole in Pune which played decent (read: rock) music. Later in the night Nishant & Deepak reached from Bombay and joined in. With that started the dope sessions & my time to get bored... Stayed awake through most of Friday night & finally slept at 7 in the morning. Early morning walk in the garden (whas'is name?) and Deepak-bashing by Nishant finally got everyone tired enough to go crash. Woke up late in the morning and see pics of folks who doped/hashed & slept! Evening Ganja joins in (his highness!) and more dope happens. More in my next entry...
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