Europe Trip - Day 6, Rome

Day 6: 22 April 2005

We had a long day ahead of us and the idea was to cover as much as possible in a day. It was impossible to cover 3000 years of history in a day, but that’s how it was to be.

Our first stop was the Colosseum, but of course. Perhaps the first image that comes to mind when the name Rome is mentioned. All of us had heard of the legend of the colosseum, about the gladiators and the bloody duels this historical place was witness to. And the many movies, books and even cartoons had furthered our interest in the colosseum. Here was a place which was a witness to a reckless sport, an inhuman barbarian game amidst the most advanced of civilizations of that era. The sight of the half destroyed monument was itself awe inspiring.

Over the years the colosseum had slowly disintegrated with restoration works being taken up only a century ago. We were listening to a guide who with her broken English was making an earnest effort to enlighten us on the history of the place. The 4 tier seating arrangements, the entry point for the gladiators, the gates through which the dead were taken away, the underground chambers all were for us to see. Surprisingly the arena, where the duels happened, was quite small in diameter. Maybe it was because we had imagined it to be real big after having seen movies like the Gladiator. The only flip side was the pot bellied 50 something urchins dressed up as gladiators and offering themselves to be photographed with for a euro or two. They were giving the legend of gladiators a bad name.

From the colosseum we walked up to the Palantine Hill, one of the 7 hills, which gives the city its epitaph. The Palantine hill overlooking the colosseum once housed the senators and other important functionaries of the Roman Empire. The Hill also gives you a panoramic view of the Roman forum which is a vast stretch of ruins dating to the golden age of the Roman Empire One could walk through it gazing at its half destroyed temples and buildings.

Unlike Paris, where we had taken the Hip hop bus, we decided to cover the city by foot. For there were monuments and churches on every street and also the best way to cover a city was by foot. From the forum we walked to the Venezia palace which towers above the surroundings. The palace was easily the most majestic of all the buildings that we had seen so far. The palace was giant in scale with even the fountain at the entrance dwarfing us by a considerable margin. This palace also houses the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

From there we walked to the pantheon, the 8th century temple (or was it a temple, I am not sure) which is famous for its special architecture. Infact my architect room mate was telling me that drawing the pantheon was something that every architecture grad would have done in college. We did not spend much time there and walked towards the famous Trevi fountain. As we were walking through the various lanes/bylanes and roads what struck us was the sheer number of historical buildings and monuments we saw in every street. That the city has a long history was well known, now we were seeing it. The trevi fountain is famous for being a ‘wishing well’. Everybody who comes there throws a coin or 2 into the small well formed at the base of the fountain and make a wish. The coins are thrown facing away from the fountain and across. Meaning, hold the coin in your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder. Now we were already on a tight budget, and no one was prepared to throw away a euro. So out went the 1 and 2 rupee coins and with it the wishes of we 6 Indians.

The next stop was the Vatican City. We were going to the Vatican just 2 days after the new Pope had been announced. We were feeling excited to be there at such a historically important phase. But our fear was that the place would be too crowded. Thankfully it was not as crowded as we thought it would be.

We got down at the St.Peters Metro station and walked towards the Vatican. We entered into the huge courtyard in front of the St.Peters Bascilica.This place had witnessed the funeral of the late Pope John Paul II only a few days back. The chairs and the arrangements made were intact, for the inaugural mass of the new Pope Benedict XVI was scheduled for the next day. The courtyard is a huge circle with a fountain in the middle. There are giant corridors along the semi circle on either side. People are routed in through this past a security check and proceed towards the Bascilica.

As we moved in near to the main entrance, there were 2 Qs formed in front of us. One of them was for the main entrance and the other was to the tomb of Pope John Paul II. Since we did not have time we had to choose between either of the 2, we chose to get into the church since the Q was smaller for that.
It was exciting to be entering into one of the holiest of shrines of Christianity, the seat of Roman Catholicism. As we entered, to our right side was the ‘Pieta’, the celebrated sculpture by Michelangelo. This stunningly graceful work shows the grieving Mother Mary cradling the dead Christ in her lap. We were captivated by the work and were amazed to see that Michelangelo completed this when he was only 23.

From there we moved further inside towards the altar, where a mass was being held. We attended it, and then later roamed inside the huge hall. There were lots of arresting statues and sculptures inside. After spending a considerable length of time inside the massive St.Peters Basilica we stepped out, did some souvenir hunting and later took the train back to our hostel.

We had a train to catch the next day, a longish one, straight from Rome to Paris, reaching Paris at around 11 in the night and the day after was the return flight to India.
But things didn’t work out as simply as we thought they would …

Europe Trip- Day 5, Venice to Rome

Day 5 was mostly spent on traveling. We had a morning train to catch from Venice to Rome. This was a Eurostar train and hence a reservation (R) was compulsory. Even though we had the Eurail passes, to get into one of these R marked trains, one has to shell a few euros more. In this case it was a substantial 12 euros per person. The train was comfortable but shockingly sparse. We were wondering why on earth we had to get reservations for such an empty train, but we didn’t have much of a choice.

Our initial plan was to visit Florence on the way to Rome, but then decided against it, since we were not sure of the train timings and we did not want to land up in Rome in a very unearthly hour. We did touch the city on the way, but all that we saw was the railway station and whatever we could see from inside the train. It was sad missing what many call one of the most beautiful cities of the world. But we were on a tight schedule and a tighter budget.

We reached Rome in the evening. The Roma Termini was a bustling and modern railway terminus. It was crowded and noisy. Felt like being in a train terminus in India. We had to choose between hauling our backpacks with us and going for a tour of the city or retire to our campsite for some rest. We decided on the latter. The camp site was located in the suburb of Prima porta and initial enquiries told us that was pretty far away. Unlike Paris, which has like 8 metro lines, Rome has only 2 and a glance at the map revealed that we had to use both of them to reach our campsite.

Before departing to the campsite, we had food at a restaurant outside the station. The waiter was a Bangladeshi. I think I have failed to mention this before but we came across Bangladeshis in both Paris and Venice. And not just once, they were present in every place we visited. Most of them were street vendors or shop owners. Since we had two people knowing Bengali in Ruchika and Kamal , we never had a problem communicating with them and in the process driving a hard bargain. We also came across Indians here and there, but mostly as tourists or office goers /students.

After having lunch we walked to the Roma Termini underground Metro station and we were in for a shock. The scene resembled a peak hour Mumbai suburban station. There was a huge crowd and the train that came in was choke a block. Also the trains were old, painted with graffiti and also small. There was no way we could get into one of them. So we had to miss a couple of trains before catching one. I never imagined that in some European city I would miss a train for being crowded, especially since I am living in Mumbai and used to getting into trains where seemingly air also can’t enter.

We changed trains at the Fluminio station and took the over ground suburban train to Prima porta. The metro train as well as this one was small in size with a pair of seats on either side of the narrow aisle. Most of the metro trains in Paris were also small. Thankfully they need not take the kind of traffic the suburban trains in Mumbai take.

We reached Prima Porta after a 30 minute ride. We had to wait for sometime for the pick up bus from the hostel. The good thing about these European hostels is that, even though they are located far away from the cities, they have pick up buses running to the nearest station. The campsite at the outset looked better and more comfortable than the Venice one. The rooms were basically trailer vans and the whole place resembled one of those trailer parks.

After freshening up, we hit the campsite restaurant and helped ourselves to some delicious pasta. We were ready to explore the eternal city the next day

Europe Trip- Day 4 , Venice

Day 4: 20 April 2005

We woke up to be greeted by a gloomy and overcast sky which threatened lots of rain. In fact it had rained the previous night as well. Not at all the kind of weather one would want while on tour. Nevertheless, we got into the shuttle bus from the campsite to the City. We brought a city map and also a day long pass which enables us to take as many trips as we want on the city’s water taxis. We got into a taxi from the Ferrovia taxi stop which is the one opposite to the railway station. Since we were not much aware of any famous landmarks in Venice, we asked a cop, and he suggested we start from St.Marco.

Sitting in the boat, one couldn’t help but get amazed again at the sight of the canals and the city built around it. Much like we have major roads and small lanes branching out of it, here you have the Canal Grande and smaller canals flowing out of them. Apart from the water taxis which are the public transport, there are private boats, gondolas and also company boats. I saw a DHL boat cruising around delivering cargo.

St Marco was 15 minutes away and was very crowded. By this time it had started to rain as well. But rain or shine, it has no effect on tourists and there were a lot many of them there. We came across a large group of Indians, who were finding it difficult to listen to their guide while at the same time dodge the rain and not get wet. We learnt that they were from Australia, all of them, and had come on a tour to Italy.

St Marco has the huge Doge’s palace, a church and also a tall tower atop which you have a viewing platform which would give a panoramic view of the city.

Doges, we learnt were the rulers of Venice for many centuries. The palace was pretty huge, it had a museum, a prison, the living rooms, and many other rooms and galleries. After having seen the Louvre, this museum did not interest us much. Also this museum had more of artifacts like pillars and sculptures rather than eye catching paintings.

We entertained hopes of getting into a gondola and going for a ride, but the cost was prohibitive. Somewhere around 50 euros for a trip, that was not affordable at all. We had to be satisfied with the water taxis.

We also had perhaps one of the funniest moments of the tour as we were waiting in the Q to get into the palace. The rain was beating down heavily and none of us had any umbrellas or raincoats. Sid and Kamal decided that the only resort was to pray to the lord. So there, under a steady drizzle, standing in a Q surrounded by many and with many more walking past, they both decided to sing a bhajan pleading to God to let sunshine in.
Heads turned, people stopped and stared while the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing. The Bhajan went on for some time. But believe me you, as we walked out of the palace after couple of hours, the rain was gone and it didn’t trouble us for the rest of the day.

Most of the buildings in Venice look pretty old, especially the ones by the canals and the city is also full of tourists all year round. Hence most of the industrial establishments and offices have moved out to the nearby town of Mestre which is linked to Venice by a highway and a rail line. Mestre is the station we touched last before entering Venice on the train from Milan. Another primarily residential location is the island of Lido, which was where we went next.

Lido is about 20 minutes from St.Marco and to reach there the boat comes out of the canals and enters the Adriatic Sea and travels in the direction opposite to the main body of the Venetian islands. We got down and immediately we were struck by the stark difference between Venice and Lido. The island was modern with beautiful houses, tree lined streets, well maintained roads, hotels and shops. The streets had Porsches, Audis and the like parked on them. This was a world away from the hustle and bustle of Venice. This I guessed was the home for the rich and famous. We learnt that the annual Venice film festival was held in Lido.

The sun had started shining by the time we reached Lido. We had lunch in one of the restaurants there and then walked to the Lido beach. It was sparse, almost empty. The gloomy weather in the morning would have put off everybody. But am sure in summer this beach would rock. We strolled around for sometime, and had perhaps the best ice cream of the tour in one of the shops in Lido. After that we took a taxi back to Venice.
We also wanted to check out another island, where as per Ruchika a famous glass factory is situated, but we were told that it would have closed down by 5 pm and hence we dropped the idea. Instead we went for a longish boat ride, a circular ride starting from Ferrovia, through all the stops and coming back to Ferrovia. We covered the outer islands, the port and the cruise dock where a couple of giant cruise ships were berthed.

We took the last shuttle bus back to the campsite. We still had a few instant food packets with us, so instead of checking out the restaurant we cooked food in our cabin.

Take away the canals and maybe Venice has got nothing much to offer. True it has churches and museums, but the uniqueness is in the canals and how the city is built around it. Venice is definitely a must see…

Europe Trip - Day 3, Paris to Venice

Day 3: 19 April 2005

This day was spent mostly on travel. We had a train to catch from the Paris gare du Lyon terminal to Milan, en route to Venice. We had taken our Eurail passes from India itself, the pass that we had taken was a 2 country (France – Italy) one valid for 2 months. But you could use the pass on 4 calendar days only. This being the first day of the pass we had to get it validated from the ticket counter, by showing our passports.

Our train was at 8 am and we got our passes endorsed half an hour before. Luckily there was no crowd at the counters; otherwise we would have been in trouble since this was another huge station. Our train was one of those high speed TGV trains. I was always a train enthusiast and was really looking forward to traveling in one of them. We got into our coach, settled into our seats and were looking at a long train journey ahead of us. We were scheduled to reach Milan at around 2 in the afternoon. The second class coach was done up ordinarily, all the basics and nothing special. Sid, who has traveled before on a first class cabin said that there was a huge difference between a first and second class cabin and that the first class ones were pure luxury.

The train pulled out Gare du Lyon and soon the French countryside was flying past us. Gone was the city and the graffiti and all its hustle and bustle, the countryside was beautiful with unending stretches of fields and little villages here and there. These TGVs are known to travel at speeds of more than 300 mph, but sitting inside we had no idea of the speed we were going at. There were a lot of small villages and their railway stations that we were rushing past and I felt kind of strange looking at them, for my mental picture of Europe had always been the big cities and their landmarks and also images of the rich and famous. This was new and I was wondering how it would be to be able to spend some time in these villages.

As we were nearing the Italian border, we could see some mountain ranges (Alps maybe?) most of which were snow capped. For me it was the first sighting of snow in my life and I was getting excited about it. Most of us wanted to jump out and play in the snow. I’ve read and also have been told by many that any Europe trip is incomplete without a train journey. Now I realized why, I was getting to see miles and miles of beautiful scenery that was heavenly and topping that with mountain ranges filled with snow... Wow! And to think that this was not one of those picture perfect routes, like the Swiss or the Swedish routes.

We reached the Italian border, where the immigration officials made a quick check of our passports and we soon were on our way. The train stopped for a few minutes in the city of Turin, famous for the automobile company FIAT, the Juventus football club and also as the host of the next winter Olympics in 2006. We reached Milan by 3.30pm, a good hour and a half behind schedule. Never imagined that trains would run late in Europe, but guess maybe it was because we were in Italy.

Milan was just a stopover for us, we had not planned to see the city. It was a bit disappointing having to miss the San Siro but we did not have the time. We got down at Milano Centrale and had all of 10 minutes to catch the Inter city train to Venice. With baggage on our back and a huge crowd to dodge, we were on our foot running across platforms to reach the train on time. We got into the first coach and made our way through the compartments. This was an intercity train and by Eurail rules reservation was not compulsory. One may choose to reserve by paying a few euros more to be assured of a seat. We of course didn’t reserve (few euros more was the clincher) and for some time thought that it was a mistake. There was not a single seat vacant in the first few compartments that we passed by. The prospect of spending 3 hours on the corridors perched on our bags/suitcases did not enthuse us much. Luckily the later coaches were empty and we settled into a coupe.

The 3 and half hour journey to Venice was full of fun. We played that age old game of Antakshari which I believe has always been played whenever a group of youngsters are traveling/touring. Even with my little knowledge of Hindi songs I managed to pitch in here and there.

We reached Venice at half past 7. Known as the city of canals Venice is also hailed as one of the most beautiful cities in the world .But even the knowledge about the canals had not prepared me for the sight that I was to see as I stepped out of the railway station. Come down the steps and about 25 meters ahead, there was, not a road with taxis and buses, but a waterway with water taxis and passenger boats. That, for me was one of the most awesome moments of the tour. This canal, we learnt was the Canal Grande, the arterial canal which winds its way across the island city. There are only 3 bridges across this canal and one of them is the one we took as we crossed over to the other side.

We had booked ourselves into a campsite located outside the city limits. Camps came at a cheaper price and also were comfortable since they offered shuttle services to the city. We walked to the bus stand and got into our shuttle bus. And yes Venice does have roads. I had once imagined that the city would not have any roads, but there are highways which connect it to the Italian Mainland.

We checked into the campsite, and helped ourselves to a satisfying dinner, thanks to the discounted food coupon the camp provided us. We had Pizzas – but of course, we were in Italy.

Europe Trip - Day 2 , Paris

Day 2 : 18 April 2005

Started the day at the Champs Elysees. Ruchika wanted to buy a digital cam and taking Sid along out she went camera hunting. She took what felt like an eternity, while the rest of us sauntered about the place. The office of Publicis was located nearby and it looked magnificent with the huge Paris 2012 logo lighted up across its face. Infact this logo is visible where ever you go in Paris. Almost every major building including the Eiffel tower sports the logo. The fight for hosting the 2012 Olympics is between Madrid, London, New York, Moscow and Paris. That’s some list.

Ruchika meanwhile was still hunting, and Shubada looked as if she would mount a horse and gallop away to hunt down her. Finally the lady returned with a prized Sony 5 mega pixel digital cam .A pretty neat buy I would say.

From there we got onto the now familiar red hip hop bus and were on our way towards louvre. Again we passed through many landmarks, including the tunnel where Lady Diana was killed, the Invalides, the Military school, Tuileries etc.

Maybe it is the effect of reading the Da Vinci code but all of us were very much interested in visiting the Louvre. We got down by the Seine and walked our way into the building. I think the building must have been some palace, it was so huge. The glass pyramid was the centerpiece in the courtyard and we spent a lot of time walking along the perimeter of the buildings and the pyramids. We then took the staircase that takes us to the foyer below the pyramid, which houses the lobby and the ticket counters. Like most other tourists we were interested in watching the grand gallery (now more famous as the place where Jacques sauniere was killed) and of course the Mona Lisa. We purchased the tickets and got into the Denon wing. After climbing a few stairs and past many paintings and sculptures we entered the grand gallery. I was never a person who was interested in paintings and works of art, but I couldn’t help but get awestruck by the masterpieces that dotted the gallery. The paintings were almost life like. I kicked myself for not having done some research about the artists whose works were on display.

After having walked past innumerable masterpieces we entered the most famous room in the Louvre, the one in which the lady resides. Perhaps the most reproduced face in the world; the real painting looked small and vulnerable. We also chanced upon another masterpiece made known to us by Dan brown- Madonna on the rocks. We had seen just one gallery in just one of the wings of the museum; it would take days for a complete tour of the building. Also saw l’pyramide inversee, another work made famous by the Da Vinci code.

By the time we had come out it was afternoon. We walked towards the chatelet shopping district. Maybe we were on the wrong road or place, but I did not find the place very interesting .There were shops all right but nothing special to write home about.

Then once again we took the hip hop bus and got down at the Trocadero and walked the long pathway towards the Eiffel tower, at every step, drinking in the marvel of engineering that was standing in front of us. This time we were well in time to get the tickets to go to the top. Though we toyed with the idea of climbing up, better sense prevailed and we decided to take the elevator. There are 3 stages en route to the top. One has to change elevators at the second level. There are souvenir shops and also restaurants in these 2 stages. We stepped out of the elevator into a circular observation room on the third stage where the distances from that point to all the major cities of the world are given and of course you could have a great view of the city.

From this room we had to climb us a small staircase to reach the topmost level of the tower. The time was around 9 pm, the chilly winds were biting into our faces like thorns. At this level you have the refurbished office of Gustav Eiffel with real life models of the architect and his wife. The view from above was simply breath taking; the city of lights was decked up in all its glory. We could see the Seine winding along the city with illuminated boats lazily cruising on them, the various bridges across them, the circle around the Champs Elysees, the Notre Dame and Sacrecour in the far distance, and all the major landmarks of the city We spent a considerable amount of time walking around the place, one did not want to get back to ground level.

With great reluctance we got back to the hostel. The next day we had the train to Italy and so this would be the last day in Paris. We had spent just 2 days here; it was almost a crime –allocating only a couple of days to this capital of the world. Each one of us were so captivated and enthralled by the sights and sounds of Paris , that am sure all of us would want to return for more.

Europe Trip- Day 1,Paris.

Day 1: 17 April 2005

With the two weeks of module behind us, we set out for the long anticipated and long planned tour. The flight out of Copenhagen was at 7 am. We reached Paris Charles de Gaulle at around half past nine on Sunday the 17th of April. We had booked hostels from India over the internet in addition to taking the Eurail passes. The first thing we had to do was to get hold of a Paris underground metro map and make sense of it. The metro system is huge and complex, but at the same time very effective. We had to change a couple of trains to reach the hostel (the airport, like many other airports was located far away from the city).

The initial feel of Paris was not that great. The outskirts were very dirty with graffiti, garbage etc everywhere. I felt like being in Mumbai. The first sign of being in a big city was when we reached the gare du nord railway station and had to catch a different route metro to reach barbes-roucherout. The station was so enormous with around 5 metro lines converging and also many high speed and TGV lines. It took us a while to get to the correct platform. But thanks to the directions and maps in every corner of the station and on the platforms, we did not get lost. Our hostel, Friends international, was located bang outside the Barbes –roucherout station. We had taken a 6 bed room which turned out to be pretty okay. One interesting thing that I noted about the hostels that apart from advertising amenities like internet, swimming pool , 24 hours check in and stuff they also display that they have English speaking staff.

The first place we went to was the Notre dame church. It was related to the hunch back of Notre dame I suppose, some one told me the story but it has escaped me now. Anyway, it was a beautiful church...the vibrations inside was great. This was the first of the many churches that we would be visiting during the tour. There is this open top tourist buses for which u get a 2 day pass for 22 euros and which takes u to all the major attractions of Paris. We got tickets for them and hopped aboard one of them. We were on the road which was running parallel to the seine, crossed it and reached the Champs Elysees, which is the most famous road in Paris.

The shops lined along either side of the Champs Elysees read like the who is who in the world of fashion and luxury. Also this is the place where the Tour De France ends, with the cyclists thundering down the avenue to make a grand finish in front of the Arc De Triomphe – another of Paris’ picture postcard monuments. The building was built by Napolean the Great to celebrate his military might. The Arc is at the centre of a huge roundabout around which roads lead in all the different directions. This makes for an amazing sight from the top of the structure. Another thing that one notices is that the Paris skyline doesn’t have any skyscrapers. All the buildings are max 7 floors... it is a policy and that has made the city even more beautiful...

From there we went to the Eiffel tower...by the time we reached it was around 8 pm and the sight of the tower all lighted up was just breathtaking... that picture will remain in my mind for ever. It looked as if it was made in gold. There are blinking lights placed all over the tower and those are activated every half an hour or so for a few minutes. That adds to the magic, and u would be seeing in front of you a 300 foot tall dazzling, glittering and seemingly gold tower. It’s a sight to behold. Since we were very late...we couldn’t climb up the top of the tower. But we had another day to go. While on the way back to the hostel chanced upon a building, it was the Paris Hilton. Looked pretty much simple, quiet, unassuming, and non controversial. Couldn’t help but think about its famous namesake as I retired for the day.

Module 2 - Apri 3 to 17, 2005

The keen followers of my blog site would have noticed that there have been no updates for a long time. The reason is that I had gone for my training session (module, the first of which is the subject for my first blog) in Denmark and followed that with a tour of Paris, Venice and Italy.

In this blog I would restrict myself to the second module. The tour would form subject for an entirely different blog.

I went into the first module with a lot of expectations and a lot of anxiety. All that I knew were stories that the seniors had told me and usually most of these were exaggerated ( naturally so) , like stories about Asians being ignored by the Europeans , about how the culture shock would be too much to bear and all that . But having been the first module and all the anxieties being laid to rest, I was eagerly looking forward to the next module- for one it would mean making many more friends , lots of fun and frolic and of course a welcome break from the drudgery of auditing bills in my office.

This time there were 6 of us Indians together and it was as good a team that I could ever dream of. We flew out to Copenhagen on the 3rd of April on an Air France flight via Paris. The flight was much better than the Lufthansa that I took last time. Each seat had an individual screen and a host of movies to choose from. Unlike the cramped Lufthansa, i found the seats to be comfortable as well. We touched down at the Charles De Gaulle Airport and had about four hours for the connecting flight to Copenhagen. We strolled about the mammoth Terminals and checked out the duty free shops. We reached CPH at about three in the afternoon and took a taxi - a big one that , it could take all 6 of us and the luggages as well. It felt great to be back at the comfortable settings of the Dansk FolkFerie, Karlsunde.( thats the name of our module centre)

The opening dinner was as usual the occasion where the proverbial ice was broken and the not so proverbial bottles were uncorked. It was time to meet up with old friends and also meet the new ones. We had ahead of us 2 weeks of long class room sessions, a day’s visit to the ship yard and of course the informal social activities and parties at the end of the day. The tuitions started with 2 days of Maritime law. The usually boring subject was made interesting thanks to the 2 lawyers who took the sessions. There was even a mock court trial to round of the tuition.

The visit to the Shipyard was eventful. It was the first time almost all of us were going to a ship yard and seeing the world’s biggest container ship being built was an awesome feeling. The same day night we had the cross culture dinner, where the trainees were split into teams based on their nationality/ geographical area and asked to prepare their traditional food. We had in our team seven Indians, two Bangladeshis and a girl from Mauritius. We prepared Vegetable Biryani, Butter Chicken, couple of side dishes, Kheer and Papads. Thanks to all the instant/ easy to make MTR packets that we carried beforehand the cooking was made easier. The dinner was a grand affair we had a global menu, ranging from the Caribbean to Chinese, from Arab to East Asian, from European to African. It was a treat to the gastric juices. I may sound immodest, but I have to say that the Indian food was widely accepted to be the best. Thanks to the girls and to Snehal – the only one among us guys to actually cook. Yours truly and the other guys in the team were, ahem, co-coordinating


One day we decided to hit town; so after having dinner, we took the train and set out to Copenhagen. The temperature outside was a very low 7 degrees (that IS very low, for a Chennai native like me) and I had never felt so much cold and numb. By the time we returned it was half past 12 and we had to walk a good 20 minutes in the cold from the station to the module centre. Am sure by this time the temp would have dropped further. It was absolutely insane, I couldn’t even speak and my teeth wouldn’t stop chattering.

Another insane thing that my colleagues came up with was the idea of going for a jog after classes and food, at around 8 in the night. Though initially I was all enthusiastic about it, once I stepped out I developed cold feet. It was due to...well... the cold. Coming to think of it I would say that I developed cold feet, cold ankles... right up to my head.

The classroom sessions were there daily and this time there were quite a few interesting classes. Liner trade and Terminal Management, for e.g., were real good sessions

Our activity manager – a slightly over enthusiastic but lovable chap from Cameroon worked real hard to arrange for activities for the group every night. As a result of his efforts, we had a night of Dance classes (salsa, disco et all), a night of aerobics, a trip to the bowling centre, a quiz nite etc, each of which was immensely enjoyable and fun filled.

The module ended with the closing dinner which was a multi course dinner which was agonizingly long and painfully distasteful. The good thing about this dinner night was the fact that all the girls had dressed up in their very best and looked beautiful. We guys had a tough time running around them and getting ourselves photographed with the lovely ladies. After the closing dinner was the final party, which was absolutely rocking.

With a heavy heart and a heavier head (well with a party till 3 am what else you expect) we said goodbyes to all the friends and left the module centre in the early hours of Sunday April 17th. Our destination was Paris and we were looking forward to a week long sojourn covering Paris, Rome and Venice…..

Visa Diplomacy

Two weeks ago the Indian government issued 10000 visas to Pakistani cricket fans to enable them to come to India and support their team. It was a great gesture which not only took forward the peace initiative but also paved the way for greater people to people contact which is most vital for the fostering peace and friendship. This was considered to be a reciprocal gesture to Pakistan issuing visa’s to Indian fans last year. Cricket and visa diplomacy at its best.

Now another issue has cropped up which also deals with visa and diplomacy. But this issue may is not as pleasant as the first one. One tiny group of lobbyists going by the name of coalition against genocide have perhaps wrought in the most humiliating insult that a seasoned politician like Mr.Narendra Modi would have faced in his career. I am referring to the contentious issue of the USA denying him a visa and going further in revoking his business visa

This coalition, having members on both the countries and more had done their homework thoroughly. They convinced a US congressman that Mr.Modi by virtue of his actions; or rather inaction during the Gujarat riots of 2002 had violated a US law and hence cannot enter the country. The congressman then took the mantle and drafted a letter to the authorities pointing out the crimes attributed to Modi during the riots and how it violated the rights to religious freedom act. Acting on it, the visa was refused. Putting in not so subtle terms, as per US law, Narendra Modi is a criminal. A criminal who presided over a genocide, who had the power to stop it, but who did nothing, who in fact abetted it. While I have no sympathies for Modi and am happy that he was insulted in such a manner, at the same time I am awestruck by the power and reach of democracy in the US. We proclaim ourselves to be the torch bearers of democracy, but all that is on paper. The same Narendra Modi won elections riding a wave fuelled by the riots. Today we see the shameful scenario of a jailed MP walking into parliament to take his oath and immediately after that returning to his cell. A person no less than the President of India has commented about the trading of legislators like commodities.

Forget a small group like the coalition against genocide, a body as powerful, big and independent as the election commission has not been able to prevent criminals from contesting elections. Is the common man s voice heard and respected? I doubt. Can any government decision be taken without being influenced by the local representatives, the members of parliament, ministers etc. But a little lobby of determined individuals could get the most powerful country in the world to listen to it and act on its findings. The US is after all a country which brought a sitting President to trial and almost impeached him. That is what I call Democracy.

Maybe politically the decision to revoke the visa was an error, and to an extent smacks of their traditional arrogance; but since when has been the US politically correct. What if all the nations of the world passed similar laws or just interpreted their existing laws to say that anybody directly or indirectly responsible for the propagation of violence would be banned from entering their country? George W Bush would not be able to step into any country in the world. Isn’t he responsible for the anarchy in Iraq, for indirectly converting Al Qaeda into the most dreaded terrorist organization in the world, for shattering peace in Madrid, Bali, Casablanca, for legitimizing dictators in some countries and demonizing elected rulers in other countries, for not listening to three fourths of the world’s population and attacking Iraq.

Heard that Uncle Bush is planning to visit India this year, why don’t we deny him a visa as well.

Forgetting ..

While at School I remember having studied an essay titled “forgetting”. I don’t exactly recall its contents, but I do remember that it was a funny article generally poking fun at the very common human fallacy. Forgetting the content and remembering the title is acceptable when the topic in question is a grade 8 English essay. On similar lines but disconcertingly, I seem to be remembering only the titles of many other things learned in school/college for which the content is more important. Examples, Bernoulli s principle, Laplace transforms, Doppler Effect and so on. But on the other hand I can tell you the dates of the school trip to a hill station, the name of my class teacher in grade 1, and that a friend of mine had this strange sentiment of wearing the same clothes on all the examination days. On paper this looks like a problem, of remembering the trivial and seemingly unimportant, while forgetting all those theorems and principles. But is it..? Don’t we all remember things closer to our heart than those closer to our brains?

I think this trait is common to many people. While I can remember the number of Oscars Lord of the Rings won, I don’t remember when the deadline for the assignment I am working on now is. The other day I saw a friend of mine forgetting her insurance papers which are a must to obtain the visa to go abroad for the company sponsored training session, while she had no trouble in remembering what another colleague’s favorite word was … yes of all things... favorite word...

The other day my roommate forgot the house keys and stepped out. The door has an automatic lock and our friend was there trapped outside the flat and I was hundreds of miles away on a holiday. The only other person to have the keys, the landlord, stayed a good hour or so away. So he had to trudge all the way there and collect the keys. The travel is not the issue, but the “how can you be so stupid” stare from the landlord can kill you. I am saying this with confidence because I received one such stare for the same reason many months back. But, my roommate can in his sleep run through the starting line up of Real Madrid, Man U and maybe Galatasaray and Dynamo Kiev also for good measure.

I am sure many among us would have had similar experiences, how many times would you have struck your hand on your forehead and said “Damn! I forgot to submit that assignment / forgot to return the book to the library/ forgot to call up a best buddy on his birthday (yeah, the buddy would be a guy, if it’s a girl, the guy may not forget) “.

And how many times would one have prided himself for remembering among other things the names of all the girls across all the years who studied… nah ….shared the campus while one was in college, the clinching answer that helped your team win the inter college competition, the number of runs Sachin scored in the world cup, the first movie with your girlfriend and so on..

I am not going to delve deep and analyze this for I have already told that people remember things closer to their hearts than to their brains and also I have blissfully forgotten all the basics of psychology that I learnt in first year B-school..

STOP the SOP

SOP s – Standard operating procedures. There is none that I hate more in this world, than this term. It has overtaken reality television, Valentines Day and washing clothes as the thing that I hate the most.

The first time I came across the term SOPs was maybe when I was in school. That SOP was something else, it stood for statement of purpose – that darned write up that one sends along with other stuff while applying to a university abroad. A friend of mine was showing me his sister’s statement of purpose, I just gave it a passing glance. Years later when I gave my GRE and time came for me to apply for universities; this SOP reared its head again. People said that SOP s would make or break your application and it is the most vital thing that you send to the university. There even were career counselors who would help you to prepare a SOP. Things so happened that I did not apply for any university but I started developing a hate for this term SOP.

But the SOP that I have mentioned in the initial paragraph refers to standard operating procedures. This is an absolutely good for nothing piece of document, that nobody likes, but everybody swears by. I think it was while doing my MBA that I was introduced to this definition of SOP. We were taught that having standard operating procedures was a good business practice and the one of the characteristics by which you could define a good firm.

The very first day of my job I was given an 8 page SOP to read and familiarize with. I faithfully read the whole thing only to realize that the SOP has not been updated to include some major changes that had taken place. All my efforts in comprehending them went waste. Fortunately my co workers never paid much attention to this document. Every job was treated on its merit and done with common sense, which I thought was very good. But I also learnt that higher up the hierarchy everybody was swearing by SOPs, anything and everything needed a SOP
SOP for taking holidays,
SOP for telephone calls,
SOP for e mails,
SOP for talking to customers
SOP for the way you arrange your desk, your file and what not.

Even when a new system was being tried out, everybody wanted a SOP made for its working, even before the system was perfected. The system should grow on its own, with the various users trying out new methods for improving it and ultimately one will get the best way of working. But if the system is in its nascent stage and the users hands are tied down with the knot called SOPs then the system will not evolve and be a failure. And also it takes so much time to draw up a SOP, that by the time you finish it, the procedures mentioned become obsolete. So what do you do?? Draw up a fresh SOP, what else!! I think some people are perpetually making SOPs.

Though the intention of having a SOP is good (it is always good to have a ready guide to look upto when in doubt) I don’t think that it must be used an end word, as something that decides the way you do your job. A rigid adherence to SOP means no scope for innovation, no cross learning from other departments, no risks and as the saying goes no rewards. SOPs can provide the much needed excuse for u to pass the buck to someone else and also to cover your ass. You can always say that it is not part of the SOP and so do not expect me to do the job. So convenient isn’t it?

The day is not far off when someone would draw up a SOP for making a SOP. Or is it already there??

Musing about SRK movies

I was channel surfing one lazy Sunday afternoon, and stumbled upon this Shah Rukh Khan movie “Chalte Chalte”. It took me two full rounds from channel 1 to 90 before I caught this movie, the reason being the ad break in that channel. Well actually more than half of the channels were playing ads as I was surfing past them. But that is another story altogether and for a later day.

Coming back to the movie, this was one Shah Rukh movie that I had not seen and so sat down to see what it was all about. This guy is a bundle of energy, even if his films are bad, he usually sparkles in his role – hamming away in his inimitable style and getting the best lines. This one also had him playing himself and not the character. But as the story was unfolding, I realized that this one also had SRK loving and wishing to marry a girl who is engaged to or about to get engaged to another man. I was struck by the fact that, most of his movies have had this theme running. Even as I am writing this, he is serenading the girl in a lovely foreign locale under the pretext of taking her to meet her would be husband. I say chaps, how more weird can u get??

While in DDLJ he traveled all the way from London to Punjab, in this movie he throws away everything and travels to Greece to win over the girl. How easy!!As one character says in the movie, he is going to Greece and not Ghatkopar, but being the hero he has everything ready made for himself like tickets, visa and doles of dough to finance everything. In kuch kuch hota hai he picked the girl right out of the marriage hall, while in Dil to pagal hai, the setting was a dance stage in front of a few thousand people. In veer zara he went one step further and wanted to marry a Pakistani girl engaged to a rich aristocrat Pakistani. He deservedly got 22 years in the prison for this, but what the heck; he did get the old preity zinta in the end.

Along the way he has been helped by some seriously fickle minded ladies, who, after a few songs, a few outrageously foolish acts in the name of love (like diving into a lake to retrieve a coin and throwing away an air force job to hop over to Pakistan) and a few sentimental dialogues by our hero, fall hook line and sinker for him. And not to mention a few chevalier gentlemen who so magnanimously sacrifice their girl for our hero. Plus the Anupam Kher type father /uncle/ whatever who egg on our hero in his mission “flick the female”.

Coming to think of it, it’s not just our SRK, but all the heroes have to get the heroines in the end. This is the norm for standard Indian cinema. After all who does not like a happy ending?

Alas, if only things were this easy in real life, u know, like falling in love after a couple of meetings, getting the girl to accept u, even if she accepts u; to get the relationship going for a long time, if the relationship does go on; then to stay committed for a long time, and after all this to face the parents and convince them. Gosh, this is a long and torturous path, aint it?? Am sure many would have failed or come to the brink of failure at any one of these stages.

The lucky ones would have braved them and gone ahead and who knows may enjoy these movies

The unlucky ones write blogs criticizing such movies.

V day - very bad day

Its valentine season and there is no way u can escape from it. Turn on the TV and every TV station worth its name has a v day special running. The music channels have evergreen love songs running all day long and of course boring you to death. The Movie channels have what they claim ‘all time great movie classics’ lined up as part of the valentine bouquet. Sadly, there is no Casablanca or Love story or at least Titanic in this bouquet. The news channels are no exception. There would be day long debates with all the usual suspects participating. One from the sangh parivar (RSS/BJP/Shiv sena) to talk about Indian culture, values and how Feb 14 is degrading it . One libertarian to defend the celebrations and one more to take a middle path and preach. God only knows when we will see a valentine s day without a debate about it in the news channels.

You want to escape from all this sham, turn the idiot box off and turn on the good old radio. Crash, boom, bang... the bombardment continues there as well. I tuned into a FM Station only to catch two TV starlets professing their undying love for each other and supposedly regaling us with the chronological history of their love story, which incidentally, is all of 6 months old. Another one had this innovative contest, it was something like this ... You love a girl and want to marry her. The normally opposing parents are all bally-ho about it. There is only one hitch; the girl comes with an excess baggage, in this case a dog. It’s a case of love me, love my dog. And your parents don’t want the damned dog. So the million dollar v day contest is... How will you convince your parents to let her bring the dog along with her? Good that Saint Valentine is dead, he would have committed suicide.

Now that the TV and the Radio have proved unbearable, it is with much trepidation that I open the newspaper. And my fears were not unfounded, every page has something or the other about the day, most of which are trite and boring and bringing a sense of déjà vu. The net is no different either, the pop ups fly at u with alarming regularity and selling everything from chocolates, flowers to candle light dinners.

Think I should join the shiv sena and join their valentine busting department. My target would not be the poor couples in public places, the other sainiks will take care of them, but all those radio andTV stations and newspaper columnists.

Sania Mania !!

An Indian woman sportsperson created history last fortnight. She made the headlines on the prime time news; she hogged the headlines in next morning’s news papers. The major magazines of the nation devoted more than a page to her. She was felicitated by among others the chief minister and governor of her state. Did Sania Mirza win the Australian Open?? Sania lost in the third round.

Agreed that reaching the third round was a first for an Indian woman tennis player and that, she more than gave a fight to the eventual champion Serena Williams. She is a talented player and may very well win more matches and bring more laurels. She has to be nurtured, given world class training, coaching and facilities and sponsors. This unprecedented third round performance has made her a celebrity overnight and if I am to believe the news reports she has received sponsorship endorsements worth 8 crores. Thank god, Mahesh Bhupathi was visionary enough to see her potential take her under his wings and sign her for his sports management firm.

While all this is welcome, I fear that amidst all this the tennis player in Sania may lose out to the celebrity Sania. She has already started appearing in advertisements and started speaking like a celebrity. Take this Quote “I want to be a youth icon, not a sex symbol”. You cannot blame her , she is all of 17 , and is seeing her photos splashed all across in the net , in Television and billboards where one clearly sees that the emphasis is more on her good looks. Every major satellite channel has aired an interview with her in the last 15 days. There is a grave danger of her getting bitten by the celebrity bug. Let her achieve some more, let she win a grand slam, then we can treat her like a queen... There is the example of Anna kournikova, who became a rage not for her tennis, but for her looks. She made one Wimbledon semi final appearance, no WTA titles, retired at 24 and now is known more as Enrique Inglesias’s girlfriend. She realized that she can make more money without playing Tennis.

She is treading on unknown path; we did not have Indian woman tennis celebrity before her. Her success can spawn much more such players. While there is no dearth of female tennis players in the senior junior, sub junior level etc not one of them have made big in the international stage. A successful Sania Mirza can inspire many more. Leander Paes won junior Wimbledon; he performed miracles in the Davis cup, won grand slam doubles. We as a nation were overjoyed and treated him like a Hero. While Leander deserved all this, if we had been more demanding from him maybe he would have excelled as a singles player as well. Similarly we must demand more from Sania. Give her sponsorships, but as a return do not make her to act in stupid commercials. Do not make her think that by doing commercials she can give back her due to her sponsors. Demand performance on the tennis court, not in front of the camera. Let she become a star , do not create one.

Temples of tragedy

Yet another tragedy at a place of worship and a huge death toll; nearly 350 and counting. I am referring to the stampede at Satara in Mahrarashtra. A short circuit resulted in a minor fire and set off panic among the thousands of devotees gathered. The melee not only led to the high death toll but also hampered whatever minor rescue efforts that the authorities initiated.

This is not the first time that a tragedy is occurring at a place of worship. A few days back in sabarimala many devotees were killed, a couple of years back at the same place nearly hundreds died in a stampede. The hajj pilgrimage in Mecca always has its share of mishaps, a fire killed 400 people some years back and a stampede there has become almost a ritual as the stoning of the Satan.

The problem is that many of our temples and places of worships are simply ill equipped and have poor infrastructure even during normal days and so when these places have their peak seasons, they simply burst at their seams leading to such tragedies. I fail to understand why temples also have peak seasons like as if they are a tourist spot. A hill station, a beach resort etc can have one... But why do temples?? . Is it that god will be more benevolent and magnanimous during such days and shower more blessings to his devotees. I wonder that when God is omnipresent, why the need to visit temples. For argument sake I accept that people require a medium and an idol to concentrate their spiritual feelings and so go to temples. People stand in queues for hours and day together to get a glimpse of the lord. I am not questioning the faith of such millions; one may choose to stand there for ages and get a second’s glimpse of the lord and be happy for the rest of his life. Perfectly fine. But why the manic rush during certain special days ,when pilgrims behave like ticket seekers trying to get hold of a few seats available for a sports event or a concert. God is always there, round the clock, 24/7 365 days a year or that is what my parents have taught me. He is not super bowl, nor is he the tulip flowers that bloom once a year. You don’t need special days and special passes to go see him..

Unless our places of worship have sound infrastructure, have proper facilities for housing , sanitation etc and are able to meet a huge rush of pilgrims they will continue to be graveyards for many..

Stop Hunting !!!! Save Humans !!!

Recently there was a huge hue and cry in Great Britain over the ban on fox hunting. The age old custom was considered by many as non- conforming to these modern times; it was a relic from the past. This ban angered the fox hunters, and there were unprecedented scenes of protest outside parliament and in the streets of London. One wise guy even managed to enter the House of Commons. This in a nutshell was the fracas over fox hunting

In India, there is a different kind of hunting going on. Well, actually not just one kind of hunting, but many. Consider this

The hunt for the Indian idol
The hunt for next best commentator
The hunt for the next super singer
The hunt for the best rock band
The hunt for the item bomb

If you are wondering what it is all about, well these are some of the TV shows currently playing in various channels. The hunting craze has taken over the TV stations. Each channel is trying to come with a new hunt, to keep all those channel surfers to pause and have a look.

Usually this jumping into the bandwagon thing happens only after a program of the same genre becomes a hit. Example, when the Indian version of who wants to be a millionaire became a hit, there was a wave of prime time quiz shows across the channels. But now surprisingly all these “hunt” events have started almost simultaneously. Everybody saw the success of American idol and wanted to ape it. And ended up clogging our TV screens with an overdose of such reality shows.

And it is not all that real; most of these reality shows have a script to follow. The lady who barged into the TV studio of Indian Idol and raised a ruckus over her daughter being not selected was actually a part time actor, and guess what; her so called daughter was also an actor. You can almost predict what is going to happen, there would be an absolutely hopeless singer, he would get screwed by the judges, and he would come out beaming to the cameras and say he participated for the fun of it. And there would be this girl, who would say that participating and winning the event was her lifetime ambition and now that she lost, she would cry and make a good sound bite. Wonder if these people are paid based on how good they act or is it a uniform wage across the board.

But the event that takes the cake for its sheer audacity and also stupidity is the hunt for the item bomb. “Item bomb” is not some thing of the RDX and Gelatin variety; it’s got to do more with skin, legs and cleavage. An item bomb is a skimpily clad woman who gyrates to a loud, unbearable song, called what else but an item song, in a movie to add to its saleable value. This item song used to be the forte of wannabe actor /models and also of actors past their prime and wanting to stay in the limelight of movies. But nowadays this has become a niche in itself with actors being branded item song specialists and commanding a huge fee for the same. So there was no wonder when a movie producer decided to give his movie some much needed publicity, by launching a hunt for the next item bomb. So you had all these young girls, from India and abroad, dancing to the most vulgar of steps and making everybody squirm. What was pitiable was having two top actors judging them based on oomph value, figure and what not. Despicable.

I wonder what weird hunts our intelligent TV channels would come up with next. Maybe the hunt for the next serial killer (pun intended), or the hunt for the next godman, how about the hunt for the next forest brigand, now that veerappan is dead.

Much like the ban on fox hunting, why can t somebody enforce a ban on such idiotic hunts and save us. Guess we have to be animals to have some benefactors.

And I heard that some channel abroad is launching a search for the couple that has sex in the best way. Are our channels listening?

Should i change the blog title of should i change myself

With great enthusiasm and interest i created the blog and gave it this grandiose title " A BLOG A DAY KEEPS BOREDOM AWAY" ... any body would think that i would be a compulsive blogger and post a blog a day ...

The reason ive given for creating a blog is that ive gots lotsa free time in office but its been 4 days since the blog was up and i ve put in just a single posting . So is it that iam suddenly very busy ... sadly no .. i still as jobless as a bear hibernating through the winter ... or is it that i found other ways to kill time .. no .. .. so why is that i have free time and still don't post a message after having proclaimed a blog a day ..

the reason is that dirty four letter word -- lazy ---- that s what iam .... you know .. its been a mightily big effort to put this post up ...

so coming back to the title .. should i change the blog title or should i change myself .... guess i will maintain status quo .. why .. iam lazy to think about a new blog title..

Module I - Sep 5 to 19 2004

Maersk Sealand, the company that I work for, has this program called Maersk International Shipping Education (MISE) where a select few employees are flown every 6 months to Copenhagen for a 2 week training session. I believe that the MISE trainees look forward to these sessions more than anything else … it’s a dream come true for most...

I of course was really excited when finally the date for my trip was announced. This is my first job, right out of college and like most young professionals have never flown abroad. So the excitement was greater. It is a strange fact that most of my friends’ first trip abroad was also courtesy their company, similar to my case.

I learnt that 3 of my colleagues would be flying with me as well. We were scheduled to take the Lufthansa flight out of Bombay in the early hours of September 5. I was and am an avid aero plane watcher. I still remember the thrill I got as a 14 year old when I managed to sight the tail of a Lufthansa parked in the Meenambakkam airport in Chennai. So now when I was actually going to fly in one of them, it was another dream come true. The plane was a 747-400, the size of which left me spellbound .I felt like a kid again. The flight was uneventful, but for the movie that they showed. Here I was inside a Lufthansa 747 and I look up and see Mallika Sherawat on the screen!!!Not quite what I expected. I felt like being inside a Volvo bus from Nashik to Bombay….. Beeghe hont and all that ….

Frankfurt airport beckoned us the next day morning in all its modern glory, the kid in me woke up again seeing the multitude of flying machines, and after a while I lost count of the number of flights parked in the terminal. The airport was choke a block with travelers from across the world crisscrossing the huge airport, I was amazed to see a rapid transit system within the airport to ferry people between the terminals. As the guy at the immigration desk pored over my passport for an uncomfortably long time, there was this sudden fear inside me that something was amiss and that I might be detained by the tall German. Thankfully my visa got stamped and there I was ready to board the next flight to Copenhagen.

While waiting to board the SAS flight to Copenhagen, my colleague Gauri forgot her passport, forex etc inside a rest room. She realized her folly after 15 minutes, and rushed back with tears streaming and all that, thankfully it was left untouched and a major crisis was averted. That was the first of the many such goof ups that Gauri did in the next fortnight.

The flight from Frankfurt to Copenhagen takes just an hour. The food that we got in the flight gave us a clue about the kind of food that we would get in Copenhagen – dry, cold and totally tasteless to my south Indian tongue.

Reached Copenhagen to find a sunny albeit cold weather welcoming us. We had to take a taxi to reach the module centre. I was taken aback when I saw a Mercedes Benz answering our call for a taxi. It was another dream come true (it was one of those “dreams coming true “days ) to travel in a merc, but to see a merc as a taxi was a shock as well. The Afghani driver tried his best to humour us with his knowledge of bollywood, but we were too busy looking out at the beautiful countryside.

We reached the module centre and settled in. The first program was the evening opening dinner. There you had 110 people, each one a stranger to the other and they were going to spend 2 weeks together. I tried to meet as many people and exchange introductions. I had a feeling that the module was going to be real fun...

The first day had us going to the company headquarters in Esplanaden. The chief executive officer addressed us and we were taken around the offices. Also we were taken to the seafront where you have the statue of perhaps the most famous symbol of Denmark – the little mermaid. It was sort of disappointing since the statue was too small compared to what I had imagined. But of course, as u have guessed it, it was a dream come true …

From the next day onwards we had class room sessions (which they called tuitions) for the whole day. People whom I have spoken to have all found me speaking very fast and my new friends were no exceptions. They also couldn’t follow me. The tuitions were good; most of it was not new to me. But for many others it was new, since most of them have only completed high school (no, they are not 16 year olds, its just that their education system is different) and do not as yet have a bachelor’s degree. so when I tell them that I ve done engineering as well a MBA and am all of 23 years, they mistook me for a genius.

When I looked around and saw people from countries like Dominican republic, Ghana, Vietnam etc as classmates I couldn’t help think about the strange progress of my education .In school I had people from my neighbouring suburbs, in college I had people from all over Tamil Nadu, in MBA people from all over India were my batch mates, now I was in a class with a worldwide representation. quite a unique record.

There were a few tongue twisters in the class. How in the world would you pronounce Wojicech Skrypinzki and Thulasizwe Buthelezi... They were also a handful of Chinese. They are perhaps the most humblest and hardworking lot. their lack of English fluency hampers them and the sad part is that they withdraw from the rest of the gang due to this reason. It must be said that many people went out of their way to help them and make them comfortable. once u get to know them, u realize how intelligent and clever they are. The Chinese finally shed their inhibitions when they threw a party to the rest of the world and needless to say it was a big hit.

The other side to the day long tuitions was the night long parties in the basement. That is the place where the Latinos and Europeans rule. We shy Indians think twice before stepping out to shake a leg, even if we are good dancers. and of course our bollywoodish dances and are quite a far cry from the salsa and tango that they prefer. So we remain in the sidelines sipping a beer or a coke and watching wistfully as the Spaniards, Danes, Americans and others make merry….

The best part of the first week was the culture day. The term culture day was actually a misnomer and named so that the trainees don’t have a clue of what is in store. The trainees were divided into groups and given 8 timed exercises to complete .the exercises really test your all around abilities; it requires physical stamina, metal skill and team work. the unique part about each of these tasks was that each one was based upon an A P Moller principle. At the end of the day as they explain to you why each task was designed the way it was, the principle behind it slowly unravels, and that is when u actually feel proud to be part of the company.

The next day we were taken to the Maersk terminal in Aarhus, some 3 and a half hours drive from our module centre. The sparkling new terminal had the AXEL MAERSK berthed in. This one is a giant of a ship – 6600 TEUs. We were taken around the ship including its engine room. The nature of my work has taken me inside a ship before, but for many it was a first time experience – pardon me for the repeated usage – it was a dream come true for them…

What I liked the most in the day was the ride on one of the straddle carriers, it’s a vehicle used to carry containers from the jetty to the yard. We got a ringside view of the operation of the straddle carrier.


The second week was full of classroom sessions, with more teamwork and presentations. I do like to make presentations but it was going a bit too far.

The time management class was very interesting and unique. The teacher pasted whatever he had written in the flip chart into the wall and also asked us to do the same, meaning, whatever group work we had done, we had put it up on the walls of the classroom. at the end of the day the class looked colorful. People were surrounded by their own work and it kind of gave out an energy which sustained them for the whole day.

The second Thursday night we had the business behaviour practice dinner. we were to put into practice all that we had learnt that day, like how to sit, how to use the fork and spoon, how to toast and all that. My date for the evening was Alice from Taiwan. The dinner took what felt like an eternity to get over; the interval between each course was too long.

Then came the closing dinner. The 2 weeks went away in a flash and for everybody it would be an unforgettable experience. I am sure not many people would have this opportunity of getting to interact with people from so many varied cultures. the closing dinner had speeches, toasts and went for more than 3 hours. After that was the final party of the module. This one stretched into the wee hours of the next day morning. It was also the time to say goodbye to many. I never imagined that in 2 weeks I would be such good friends with many people whom I would actually miss once the module was over.

Next day morning we vacated our rooms and got into the bus that took us to the airport. since my flight out was only a day later, I was planning to stay with a friend of mine. I met him in the Copenhagen central station and from there went to his apartment. He was a classmate of mine in Engineering college and I was meeting him for the first time after college. and never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I would meet him in Copenhagen. It surely is a small world… We spent the day roaming around Copenhagen; we visited the Tivoli gardens, Radauspladen, and had dinner at the magnificent Indian restaurant – the Indian Taj. After that we hit a pub called Rosie McGees which had one of the best interior settings I have ever seen …All in all an amazing day to round off the 2 week trip

The flight back home was uneventful except that they gave u the feeling of a Volvo bus again by playing yet another stupid Hindi movie…

I was back home in my apartment in the early hours of sept 21. the trip was unlike anything I had experienced all my life. It has given me so many wonderful memories and am already looking forward to the second module 6 months hence …..