ICC World Cup 2015!

After many days of mauka mauka ads, following World Cup closely, heart break of losing in the semi finals and finally the World Cup coming to a close today, there are quite a few things that I discovered.

My son is unknowingly growing a cricket fanatic as all of us Indians very fast. He prayed for Indian cricket team's victory in World Cup at a temple forgetting that his final exams are impending. He was absolutely upset, low and picked up fights at home when India lost the semi finals. He started talking numbers and names of who took whose wicket, and made how many runs without any additional efforts of remembering things!!

I could completely relate to the woman in the cricbuzz.com advertisement after my son managed to throw the snacks in dish in my hand all over the place while throwing an imaginary ball in his hand, and also managed to break my daughter's beads' bracelet in Domino's through another. It must surely have been quite a scene, all of us looking under the table for all the beads while my daughter was surely upset.



I rediscovered the joy of watching cricket and cheering up Indian team after a long break I guess. It was so much fun! First match India vs Pakistan provided the necessary steam as I was with my brother n parents and actually brought back my childhood memories of watching cricket together!

It's so much more fun to have the company of childhood friends while following cricket. While we are all far away now, constant messages on whatsapp did the trick, sharing all our thoughts and adding much more masala to the ongoing matches.


India has become so creative in thinking, all the mauka videos and innumerable viral jokes on whatsapp n Facebook can be presented as proof.

India has moved away from pelting stones on players' house, burning effigies n resorted to viral jokes now. The spoof on poor anushka was totally uncalled for, but seems she became an easy target for at least 100 viral jokes! Leaving  that aside, In general, we heard more positive things even after the defeat than all attacks we hear all the time.

Sachin is so graceful in what he says, his tweets after India lost out to Aussies clearly show why everyone loves him so much n the young brigade in the team believes so much in him. It was awesome to hear the cheer at Melbourne every time his name was announced at the closing ceremony.



We probably have more self belief as Indians than ever before. The kind of talks people had, the advertisements showed up, overall mood in the country where cricket is treated as a religion and the show all fellow Indians put up in Australia supporting India was simply indicative of this.

Finally the young brigade that played this time has really earned a lot of respect and learnt lessons and confidence to carry forward in their careers. Thanks guys for giving us those wonderful moments of awesome performance and pride! Better luck next time!! And hats off to Saina for her awesome achievement of becoming World No. 1. So what if India's sons could not retain the title, India's daughter has made her proud :))

Waiting at the Airport

There is something about waiting at the airport all alone. As I am waiting for the flight today in the crazy morning hours, I thought of penning (or rather typing) down my thoughts.



Most of my long hours of waiting at the airport have been during my international flights. Earlier when I would have a lot of time to wait, I would simply find my gate, dump my head in a book and finish it off while waiting for the flight. I had been able kill really long hours using this trick.

But recently my short trips where I travel alone and wait for an hour or two at the airports, I have found interesting ways to spend time apart from reading books.

One of the ways is to tour all the shops that are available at the airport. While I am not really a shopper, and mostly buy only sweets or special delicacies from that place, it's a great way to pass time. I am always amused by the various Indian special art and craft items on display there. Most of it is very expensive and not reasonable at all. I think it's mainly targeting the foreign tourists. But it's an awesome eye treat. I try and get ideas on what kind of things I should buy for myself and my home  from a place that sells it at a cheaper rate.

On my trip to South Indian locations like Chennai and Bangalore, it's sandalwood articles, gods goddesses, typical Mysore craft items are all really inviting. North India carries embroideries, flashy colorful things that are so Indian. Great things to look at, I have been able to avoid the temptation of buying those so far, not sure how long I can though!! While roaming in Europe on the airport, I picked up quite a few trivia items like fridge magnets, cow bells, souvenirs and so on.

The other way I spend time is by just observing people's behavior. There are IT folks like us who are rushing to finish their presentations on their laptops, businessmen trying to do their deals over calls, some loud people flashing how busy they are hopping across cities. There are mummies running behind their hyper active kids, mummies and daddies picking up costly toys and chocolates for their little ones waiting for them at home. There are anxious people who would continuously keep checking that they are at the right gate or not, people who are really tired travelling these weird hours.


There is the airport staff always busy in doing their very very important things ensuring that everything is fine. There are colleagues in groups cursing their bosses for meetings they are travelling for. People frantically searching for charging points to charge their dying mobiles and laptops that can get them back on their always on life. There are people cursing the internet bring very slow and not being able to send that critical mail out before they fly.

My observations at Istanbul airport where I was supposed to wait for 8 hours, that got extended to 10 hours were really very vivid. I got talking to this Egyptian guy who spoke broken English. When I mentioned I am travelling for work, he started praising Indians being so business minded. I am not sure where he saw business in my mind, but anyways I accepted his compliments on behalf of all Indians. During that wait period, I saw at least 100 different varieties of burqa or hijab being wore by the ladies from Middle East and Africa, a great mixture of races and nationalities running around to catch flights, it was quite an experience!



All in all, I have learnt to observe people, enjoy their moods and learn from them. It helps me keep busy even in other situations when I am alone like marriages of distant relatives, other kids' birthday parties where I don't really have much to do. So many moods to look at, so much to learn!!

On personal branding

I recently attended a talk by one of our leaders on personal branding, and it was a great refresher and reminder for me to relook at my personal brand. 

In today's world, in sectors like IT and many other private sectors where people are the main assets, I guess it's very critical to create personal brand to remain relevant. Like companies carry out exercises to come up their tag line, vision, goals, and define their roadmap towards achieving the targets and living the brand they want to become, I think it's important for us as individuals also to think about it. We may not have time and money to spend on branding exercise, but we can turn our everyday actions into brand building exercise! 

Sounds a bit abstract right? Here is the sense I have made for myself in my professional life that I wanted to bounce off with all of you: 

• What does google search return when someone searches for me?
• Keeping linked in profile updated even of I may not intend to switch job
• Connect with people on linked in as soon as I meet with them and find value in their talk or conversation
• Build networks inside the organization with colleagues who share common interest, skills or passion

• Share my knowledge on platforms like slideshare, my conference presentation may be attended by a few, but my deck on slideshare is viewed by many many more
• Blogging
• Open source contribution
• Publish papers on recognized sites such as tcs.com

• Ensure that the way to carry self, what I talk or promote is in line with the principles I stand for
• Engage in things I believe in and make time for those
• Discipline in terms of way of working
• Maintain professionalism
• Be open to learn new things and to listen to junior colleagues for suggestions
• ... 

There could be many other things we must be following to build a brand that we stand for, it would be great to hear from all of you!

Swiss Bliss - A Travelogue

Back in 1995, all of us college friends saw "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" and could not help falling in love with the movie, the songs, Shahrukh and of course the lovely Europe and Switzerland locations. While I continued watching more and more of Shahrukh's films, the opportunity to visit Switzerland knocked my door after almost 20 years. I visited Switzerland with family from 13th to 17th October 2014.

It was a great fun to create the whole plan ourselves with the help of Google Maps, Trip Adviser, lots of Swiss travel guide sites and talking to friends who have been there. The plan is a reusable component, and I can share it, if any of you decide to travel to Switzerland!

An early morning flight took us to Zurich and we traveled to Zurich HB from the airport via train.

We took the Zurich Classic Trolley Combo Tour to go around the Zurich City, which is “Switzerland's Mumbai, the most important business location. There was an informative commentary via earphones in English in the trolley. We adored the wonderful crystal clear shining blue Lake Zurich with its famous fountains.


That followed with the St. Peter's Church with Europe's largest clock face, Fraumünster Church with its famous Chagall windows and the Guild Halls that has a plaque commemorating Winston Churchill, where he famously stated, "Europe, Arise!

We saw Café Odeon known as a historic meeting place of artistes, and revolutionaries through the world wars. The tour ended on a high note, with visiting Mount Uetliberg, 871 meters (2,850ft) above the city that offered us an astonishing panorama view of the city along with the lake and Alps ranges.

The next day morning we traveled to Lucerne, the Swiss city I loved the most. After a great journey from Zurich to Lucerne via train, we almost immediately left for Mount Pilatus. To reach the mountain top, we had to take a Pilatus Railway, which is world's steepest Cogwheel Railway from Alpnachstad.

It was an awesome snow clad mountain. This was first experience in snow for my kids, so they were enthralled to see the snow. We had fun playing in the snow on the sunny day, and also made a snowman!

After the mountain top trip, we went around the Lucerne city on foot. It was great fun roaming around the city with the long canal, with a large number of lovely foot bridges. One of the most famous bridges was the Chapel Bridge, a wooden bridge with paintings inside, and fully covered in beautiful flowers from outside.

 

We savored jumbo ice creams sitting by the lake in the main city, as evening dawned upon the snowy mountains and lovely city. The serene and peaceful evening by the lake would always remain etched in my mind.

Mount Titlis, the place for eternal snow, was our destination for the third day and that was undoubtedly the most exciting journey. From the Engelberg station, we rode in three different cable cars, including one 360 degree revolving above glaciers, with a breathtaking view and sense of adventure. Once we reached the top, we were greeted with Snowfall, again a first for my kids. It was such a thrilling experience.

We tried skiing (and fell many times!), admired all the skiers, took the Titlis Cliff Walk (the highest elevation suspension bridge in Europe), enjoyed the ice sculptures in the ice cave and rode the Ice Flyer.

A Swedish fellow traveler, who knew about Shahrukh Khan, could sing first full line of "Tujhe Dekha to yeh jaana…" and the big portrait of Kajol and Shahrukh at the top was an icing on the cake
completing the DDLJ link with Switzerland.

On fourth day, we travelled to Interlaken by Lucerne Interlaken Express. We could not take our eyes off as the train rode through the pristine lush green scenes and more than five magnificent
lakes. Interlaken is a small town with a countryside look, complete with Swiss cows grazing with the famous cow bells hanging around their necks. Top of Europe, Jungfrau needed a travel in 3 different trains from Interlaken. The trains offered a close view to the snowy mountains as we climbed the top.

The Train Conductor somehow knew a bit of Hindi, when he chose to tell my kids "Dheere Dheere" as they ran back towards the train after glancing from a view point! In fact, the stall vendors saying
"Dhanyawad / Alvida", omnipresence of Indian carts / restaurant in these places, tell the tale of
Indian tourists' love with Switzerland.

The top of Europe had a nice snow covered plateau with Swiss flag, and a view of the observatory which served as the lab of the villain in Krish 3.On the last day, we traveled back to Zurich, and to Rhine Falls from there. Rhine Falls is the largest plain waterfall in Europe. The enormity of the milk white water raging across the fall made it a great sight, and the various view-points that we climbed up and down provided spectacular view of the grand falls.

That was the last point before we had to embark on our return journey from this Dreamland. Even when I am back to the everyday routine, the vivid memories of the Swiss Bliss are fresh on my mind.