Photos

Mountain, Maiela, Chaiti Province, Italy (400 Kms from Rome)















National Altar, Rome.


















Sign post at westend of Pacific, at Los Angles Port.





















Rome Coloseum view























Karthik and Lalitha 2007, MARCH

















ADRIATIC SEA in ITALY.






Dr VBV Rajan, Ex-GM, BASF, Mangalore. Photo taken on 4th March 2007 at Los Angles, Crown Plaza, Redondo Beach.















Entrance to the Rome old city













Rome Famous Fountain.









This week I am uplinking some of the photos of my trip to Italy, France and USA. I also had a chance to meet Dr Rajan my Boss at BASF, Mangalore, Who has retired and settled in Seattle, USA. It was Dr Rajan, who developed the Managerial Skills in me during 1997-1999.


So I think the Semi Final line up will be Australia Vs Srilanka, and Newzealand Vs South Africa, I don't want to predict further.


Off to Shirdi for 4 days this weekend, we make this travel every year after children's exam.
Take care and live consciously.
Karthik.

One night in Bangkok

I am glad that at the way things have shaped up this week for Indian cricket. I was always confident, that this time it would be a big challenge for India to go to the second round on its own merit and the same thing has happened. I always felt that the team is preoccupied with Ad contracts and other off activities. I am also some times shocked to see the players dashing for various events in between matches, and only 2 weeks back I saw the so called great batsman and so called Gilchrist, rushing to London for 24 Hrs between one day internationals and back. If this is the case god save Indian cricket. I always felt, that westindies lost the world cup in 1983 rather than India won it. So I am happy that the Indian cricket is on its knees. I hope the people learn from this and treat it as a game. No where in the world I had seen such a kind of frenzy.

Ok, I had been to Thailand many times, but never took time to mention that in my blog, may be its so close or common place. I had a the chance to explore the city this week, more so on the weekend for the Honeywell meeting and the weekend was used up for the team building purpose which covered finding exact shops and antiques besides exploring some of the areas. The open shopping market which houses 30,000 stalls and is thronged by 100,000 people at any given time.

Bangkok is a good place to do cheap shopping and there is more there just than the Night life bar and nude shows that go there. I haven't been to those places other than the first time in 2000 to see what its like (I personally feel that everything is to be seen once),but my personal opinion is that you must go there once to see it. There is more than nudity there for some of the tricks that girls perform there are seen to be believed and leaves you dazed.

The transportation system is one of the best I have seen in Asia with subway and sky way. The new international airport will give Narita, Dubai and Changi a run for the money. The Thai currency Bhatt is close to a Rupee (1.3) so you dont feel the pain of pairity.
The greatest fun is in shopping and you can do outrageous bargain on street shops and get away with the product for almost the prize you bargained.
So plan a visit to Bangkok, its good get away as mentioned in the song "One night in Bangkok is always better" by Murray Head.

Patappa and Radha

This week I thought I will go back in Time.

My daughter Radha was offered a scholarship at the Presidential classroom program on Science, Technology and Public Policy at Washington DC during the last week of Feb 07. After program was completed she was to spend a weekend at Ravi's place. In order to explain the connection between us and Ravi, the family tree has to go up three generations to my great grand father Patappa. Then she understood, how we are related. That then provoked me to work the family tree tracing back 3 generations. I could finish the flow chart after 2 hrs of racking the brain.

Radha had a good time in the USA, she learned a lot, she was also excited to visit places in DC and New York. I think this would give her a different perspective of the world, people and herself.
She had been to Ground Zero of WTC, I visited WTC on May 11, 2001 exactly 6 months before it came down. I would try to scan the photo and upload here soon.
She also met my cousin Dhuruvan, whom we haven't seen for about 26 years.

I have not spent time on reading books, got to start that soon.
Take care, stay healthy and As Steve Pavalina says, "Live Consciously"

Italy and France and the week of 25th Feb

Hi,
Sorry No photos this edition, Hope to do that when back home.
Its been ages I had posted the info in Website. As I am sitting in the Los Angeles, Airport, British Airways Lounge waiting for the flight to take back to Bangalore, I thought I would put my thoughts thro the public computer.

Well, I had a great visit to Italy and France in the last week of January. I had been to Atessa, which is 300 Kms from Rome. The food, people were great, so was the passion for football. I also had a great time visiting Rome went thro Colosseum, Ancient ruins, Italian Parliament. I was very fortunate to have the company of Lio, the Guy who picked me all the way to Atessa and back to Rome. Lio was a Italian Canadian with a fluent English. So he was able to tell all the things about Italy. The Bread and Olive Oil are out of the world and I was drinking it in Mini cups soaking it with Bread.

France too was Fantastic, The weather yes at -5 deg was something new. But I got adjusted. The drive from Luxembourg to Epinal in France of 300 Kms was so straight, that if you shoot an arrow it would reach Epinal. I also a good tour of the city and food was reasonable.

The week of Feb 25th was great, I brought my Daughter to the USA for a 2 week Scholarship. She had received this sponsored by Honeywell. (www.presidentialclassroom.org)
She had been to so many places in Washington, DC and met people like Buzz Aldrin, Senators etc. She learned a lot. There were 160 students from Age 14- 18, she was kind of the youngest.
This week also I got in touch with my cousin Dhuruvan, after 27 years, and he met my daughter in DC. I also got in touch with my classmate after 24 years over phone and plan to be the focal point. We studied together in Madurai. I also a good meeting professionally, the purpose for which I came to LA as well as had quick tour with walk on the Redando and Hermosa beaches.

So take care, Will post Photos and other thoughts soon. As I got to leave the Business lounge for security Check. The LAX airport is also a theme for the song, "LA International Airport" which I use to hum in College days.
Take care and Stay healthy.

Bye
Karthik.

The Big Brother

I am in Guangzhou, China this week for 2 weeks on Business travel. I am very excited to be here in this great country which has culture, value and civilisation that is as old as India.No wonder they are the big brother of India.

Guangzhou is in the southeast China and is about 100 Miles north of Hongkong. This is a city with a population of 5 Million. The first impression is China is Huge and the infrastructure is vast. The roads are well developed for transportation. After seeing quiet places in West, it was fun to see people busting on the roads in 1000s. You feel you are in Bombay or Bangalore. The traffic is chaotic, there are 3 to 4 people traveling on 2 wheeler and the bus conductors screaming for passengers / working out negotiations reminds you of the Indian street scenes.

Yes, English is a big issue in streets and even in a big city like Guangzhou is no exception. You struggle to communicate what do you want. In my case being a vegetarian, its a nightmare. Anyway the experience to be in the land of Confucius is great.

Hitting 190 KMPH

Just to let you know that the proverbial Wolf caught up with me after 12 years of international travel, I am talking about the Luggage lost in Transit in international travel.

This happened at Frankfurt airport on the transit via London. My only checked Bag was not loaded in the BA flight to Frankfurt, Sunday.

With all the hand baggage restriction, you can imagine that I didn't carry anything other than Laptop (that too charger was in the checked baggage to reduce weight, you are allowed only 7 Kgs), So it was a hell of a time over the last 48 Hrs.

That's life is it not. Fortunately I managed to buy all the spares that are needed to sustain self in Neunkirchen (closer to France) and yes the positive was a great shopping experience for all your needs and this was done in an Hour. My German colleagues were very helpful all throughout. I think British Airways also did a great job, I tracked the progress thro their website.

Some learning I guess.Let me see how I prepare a better Plan B for future travel.

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I also had a very good 2 weeks trip in Germany, I spent the weekend in Frankfurt and it has changed a lot in 12years since I last visited. I also had a chance to travel on the Autobahn from Frankfurt to Hamburg and the distance of 512 Km was done in 4 Hr flat. At some places we hit 190 Kmph as there are no legal speed limits (See photo) That was fantastic experience. The car I traveled with my Colleague had also Global Positioning System (GPS) which just directs you where you want to go.(You just select destination), Its amazing where technology is going.

This trip was also a good learning for me as it gave broader safety perspective in to German legislation, requirements etc.

Take care and have a great great time and looking forward to Holidays.

Regards

Karthik.

Completed MBA, Bucharest et al.

I hope all had a good festive time.

I am delighted to inform that I had completed the MBA-HR course of IGNOU. It took 3 years, 6 semesters and 19 papers. (1 paper in the second attempt, which delayed the results by a year, Never had a clue as to how I missed the papers, almost all folks who attempted the paper in HR during Dec 2004, had to reappear and complete. I think this was great and I had lot of learning. I now had to complete the project work which I am doing on corporate social responsibility. I expect to hit the steam soon.

OK, Now to my Bucharest visit. I had a great time in Bucharest. Romania is an upcoming nation like India. The situation is no different with the growth. The only difference is unemployment is practically zero and so they are looking at Romanians from outside the country, (Romania is smaller than greater Bombay with 20 Million people, Bucharest is 2 Million) mostly in Spain etc to come back and build the nation. The traffic jams and disorderliness reminds you of Bombay. The accent people speak reminds you of the James Bond movie (Russia with love etc). The hotel Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel was very good.

I hope you are also aware that Dracula has its origin from Romania, so its also called the land of Dracula.

The great thing that attracted me to Bucharest are the Architecture, Bucharest has the world's second largest building which now houses the Romanian Parliament. There are many beautiful buildings. It appears, Nikolai Ceausescu, who ruled Romania in communist times from 1965 to 1989, built and showed many great things to Romanians how great things can be, showed people what better things are and never allowed them to enjoy it.

Of course, one of the other thing of striking nature was the prettiness of the women in Romania. I usually never bothered about that anywhere else to take notice, But this was a striking nature in them. I think there is something that is different and comes close to Indian beauty, I guess. Needless to say, I shared this with my wife as the first email from Romania and to few women friends I have, so the issue is settled I guess.

I had also chance to meet my classmate Krishnan, in New Jersy after 5 years, we met for the second time in the US the first one in 2001 after 18 years. I plan to find the rest of the guys of our college and lets see how it goes. We did our graduation in TCE, Madurai. Pl find the photo with his family taken in Morris town, NJ.

I am reading the book "Execution, the discipline of getting things done" by Larry Bossidy, the ex- chairman of Honeywell. Larry turned the company around. If you want to know about the Honeywell culture, that's the best book to read.

Take care and catch up with you soon

Karthik.