My India Trip Diary

Went to India after 3 years, (Jyoti had a short trip in between ) , wasn't expecting a lot of change and was not disappointed , though sadly :((( Interesting notes from the trip

- International roaming worked while in transit. Was not sure .

- Kolkata airport is still the same as was 10 years back, international terminal resembles a bus stand , domestic terminal is much much better. It took 2 hours to clear immigration .

- Security at the airport was nominal considering there was a level 1 security warning couple of days before . "Chalta hai " to the fore.

- Enjoyed all good food, had a interesting discussion with dad on which portion of goat is good, raan or back leg. I had my preference for raan, dad came along with me .Btw , people in Bengal like there meat to be fatty and hence preference for leg and grown up goat. I too like fatty meat once in a while

- Went shopping to one of the new malls, malls are mushrooming all over india , are they any barometer of india's progress? btw in some of the malls they are charging entry fees as people go there on weekend outings for fun .

- Checked out ITC sonar bangla , Jyoti liked the Paneer seek kabab, i ticked off one of my to do item i.e sikandaree Raan. Food in ITC chain is always good compared to other 5 stars, because of there Dum pukht and Peshawari restaurant chains.

- No direct flight connectivity between Kolkata and Benaras so back to old faithful , indian rail. No change there either, with coach attendant asking for tips without doing anything. Good thing, train reached destination on schedule.

- got a look at one of Vajpayee's imortal contribution , the natioanl hiways . they are of very good standard. but still bicycles and tractors sharing the freeway with fast moving vehicles. Why?

- Benaras remained unchanged , and it has not changed for 6 thousand years of recorded history. But someone should do something about the city. narrow lanes, no traffic sense( like any other city ) and lot of pollution.

- Visited IT BHU my Alma matter. Seems like they are formally changing the name to IIT BHU . lot of construction work going to accommodate the new reservation policies in the IIT's and IIM's, Took Jyoti and Mona( Jyoti's younger sister) down the memory lane in the Kings Pavilion cricket ground . One of the best cricket ground i have played on.

- Mona selected Kebab Factory at Raddision for Jyoti's birthday dinner. Ticked of one more to do item. Gilawati kebab. Its a experience. People visiting Lucknow region check it out. Its not found anywhere else. Its also called Tunde ke Kabab

- Visited Ramnager fort , the palace of Kashi Naresh ( King of Varansi Princely state). its amazing to know no one has ever seen a kashi naresh eating including his wife. For more then 15 generations the king eats in isolation the pure satvik vegi food . BHU was built on the land donated by Kashi Naresh .

- Back in Kolkata , had interesting discussion on Pranayam with Dad, seems like he was doing it wrong for last couple of years. He accepted, though i am not a master, but was able to explain logicaly i guess.

- Saw Satyam news , a sense of de ja vu , i thought i had seen this happening sometime back.

- Sachin batted aggresively against shurastra, was fun to watch .also saw some of his old brutal innings. Warne and akram taken to cleaners, one of the shots he has stopped using now, the short wrist jab over mid on and mid wicket. The more i see his old self in the videos , more i think he should retire now. He was owner of the cricket field then . Now the cricket field owns him :) . I am planning to collect the videos of all his innings before 2003.

- My neice simmi one of the smartest kid i have seen, expert in everything, she is the teacher for my dad on using computers. She considers Jyoti's as her best Friend , piyoo are you taking notice ?:))))))))))))))))

- younger brother, Dipu got the bengali delicacy mustard Pabda made at one of his Friends place. One of another tick item on to do list. Yummy.

- Met Arjun and Shashi over lamb shanks and beer . guess where, ITC Sonar bangla. The marrow in shank was amazing.

- Could't travel to delhi , to meet Nitin , Kartik , 3 weeks was too short a time. Promise , next time. My freinds understand.:))

- enojyed getting into US on GC for first time, took 5 mins end to end.

- Jyoti enjoying her extended stay in india and i am back in US for my bread and butter.

Lot to say , but time to quit now .All said and done, India is india .

The Next Diansaurs - Revisited.

Couldn't resist revisiting my earlier thoughts on future of IT industry in the series the IT industry The Next Dinosaurs , the basic questions around inefficiencies in IT companies and there business models leading to using under the table methods to gain business and profitability , mentioned in the articles is coming to fore. Inefficient companies use unlawfull tactics to remain profitable.



Also the call on Infosys breaking away and not all of big IT companies will survive is coming good.
http://raishashi.blogspot.com/2007/08/looking-into-future-next-dinosaurs.html



So what next



I personally feel , satyam should not be bailed out, it should be made an example as it will make other companies to come clean . I feel most of the Indian IT companies are using unfair means to cover there inefficiencies.