My Plane trips

Hmmm, so feeling much better to write about my trips. The one thing that has changed a lot over the last few years is the number of different air-carriers. I saw at least 4 new ones this year. Good for consumers.

So first I took a low cost carrier, Air-Deccan. It prides itself in it being a no-frills, just fly airline. It's no-nonsense flying includes no seat numbers and even water for sale. Back to the trip, so people wait patiently after the security check. The employees of the airline walk very fast back and forth with walkie-talkies with some kind of aim in life, not sure what as I can never understand a single word out of their mouths or walkie talkies. So I sit down, on a vacant seat far away from the crowd and start reading my newspaper. There are many seats available but people start sitting next to me and start looking over the newspaper. Concept of personal space is little different here. I get little annoyed but o.k. Then they start asking for sections of newspaper. I decided to go ahead give the newspaper to him and start reading my novel.

The flight arrives, no PSA, just a shrill shout from a skinny girl. Scared the heck out of bunch of people. Suddenly, as if the seats will be filled and you have to stand in the plane, people are running all over themselves to get in line. We all get in, the flight was uneventful with no-one bothering me as I had my laptop open.

The third trip, I am feeling like a pro. I took another airlines called SpiceJet. Good Customer service and they at least give snacks/water. The girl did not shout announcing the arrival and everything was going well. This time, I decided to read rather than work in the plane. I opened my book, went through 3 pages when a woman starts nudging me from back. I looked back and said what's up. She asks if Iam reading the book and I just nodded. She says that she just wanted to tell me that if I fall asleep, that she will borrow my book until I wake up. I wanted to say "Try me cuz I will never sleep" but I just politely nodded.

Couple of minutes pass and then I hear a psssst noise. I look up, the guy besides my seat on the other side is calling me. I was on the aisle and the girl in the window seat on my side was reading some magazine. He asks me to ask her if he can borrow her book after she is done. It was good thing that she heard him and said O.K as I had half a mind to tell him no.

I have been on many flights from U.S to India or in U.S itself where I never ever talked to the next person after saying Hi. I just realized, I forgot the same culture of sharing magazines in buses/trains in India is in planes too and I just have to get used to it.

Even with that realization, I never slept and never gave the lady a chance to borrow my book but at least now I know I can go on a plane without a book and hope that someone with a book close to me will fall asleep :)

Gurgaon

The first thing you see in Gurgaon is the construction. There are new high rise apartments every where. Its exciting times for Gurgaon, people who are in real estate are becoming millionaires. People are willing to pay good money for apartments here. There are multi-crore central A/C apartments that have a waiting list.

Its pretty much a mall city. They have more than 8 malls here. Most of them are four level and have cinemas on the top floor. They have pubs and dance clubs. I heard that Starbucks is going to invade India in less than a year. I drink outside tea from a small mobile shop for 3 rupees, so let's see how much more expensive than coffe day starbucks is.

The food variety in India is great. You can get omelettes and paratha's on road side stalls (24 hrs) to great food in Dhaba's to food in malls (Lot of American and Chinese places but only one or two mexican). Maybe bring chipotle here, now that's a business idea.

Auto's are banned here. So its either rickshaw or walk for short distnaces. But definitely helps the traffic.

More later

A little kid

It was a hot day in Gurgaon. I just got out of an A/C room and feeling pretty hot. I was just about to get into an A/C car again just to escape the heat. There in front of the gate was a little kid not more than 3-4 months old. The baby was crying and no one there to comfort her or feed her. The baby was just left on a piece of bedsheet under the shade of a small tree. 2-3 security guards were milling around and did not seem to care. Being a usually reserved guy, I do not get into these things but something really started bothering me. I asked the guard where the mom was. They told me she was working as a construction worker and she will come when she gets a break. I really felt bad, thinking how helpless the baby was and just stood there. After what seemed like an eternity (maybe 10 mins), the mom came and breastfed her. I did not know how to react; whether to give her some money and how she would feel. For some reason, I just decided to walk away with a heavy heart. I saw the same kid, 2-3 times that day, sometimes crying and sometimes playing and once even stared at me intently. Here is a kid who cannot even turn on her side and vulnerable and the mom is probably working the whole day for 50-60 rupees. I have been spending lots of money just to drink pepsi's. It made me realize the difference between the poor and the rich. The rich are getting richer and the poor are left behind. I am pretty sure this incident has made a mark on me and hopefully make me change for the better but I have no idea what effect it had on me.

Only in India

I have lived in U.S in mid tiered cities and in my 14 years there, never took the Amtrak(big surprise there). I had taken the metro/subway in chicago, Boston, London etc but I was a little hesitant of the metro in Hyderabad.

My in-laws live about 35 kms from where I live. This is the last station on the route for this metro (MMTS as its called). With the traffic as it is, it would almost take 1.5 hrs and the stress it would create with the haphazard traffic is pretty high. So I decided along with my brother, wife and kid to take on this challenge.

The stations are really clean. The trains are not on exact time but they are usually only 10-15 minutes late. I sit with my kid and lot of people come and start talking to the kid, mom etc. This is kind of little unnerving but starting to get used to it. One guy for no reason, starts telling us the history of MMTS. He seems pretty proud of MMTS.

I want to smoke a cigarette. One change I have noticed is that, there is no more smoking in trains and people really do not break the law. So I sneaked a cigarette at the end of the platform as I feel guilty.

The train comes and there is not realy a rush. People are courteous and give seats to women and kids. .....and people are friendly. They do not just bury their face in the newspaper or listen to their Ipod.

The journey was pretty comfortable and then we started back on the last train. There were not too many people at each station and the train would stop only for 10-15 secs. This went on until....

at one station, the train stopped for 10 secs and started to accelarate. far away on the other platform, there was a woman with 2 kids. She shouted, please stop the train. The driver saw this, waited patiently for 5 mins until she could get over the overhead bridge and get into the train. All the people, waited patiently, made sure she got in O.K and I heard couple of people say "God Bless the driver as she would have to spend lot of money if she missed this". Now this happens only in India.

Introduction

So, finally after 14 years, made the decision to come back to India. Left a nice comfortabe life and a six figure salary in U.S to come and experience the IT boom in India and also be close to parents and family. Have not closed all the loose ends in U.S yet, but hope to soon.

I will be trying to put my everyday experiences whenever possible here and would like your comments and feedback.