1. Try not to venture out too early in the morning. The bombers spend all night psyching themselves up, then say their prayers at dawn, and go off to murder. A second helping of Corn Flakes could save your life.
2. Always try to get a hotel room between 2nd and the 6th floor. This way you are far away from the shootouts, car bombs, robbery etc. and yet not too far away that the fire brigade’s ladders cannot reach you.

AMAZING : Chinese Concept – The train that never stops at a station:

A brilliant new Chinese train innovation – get on & off the bullet train without the train stopping. VERY COOL CONCEPT !

No time is wasted. The bullet train is moving all the time. If there are 30 stations between Beijing and Guangzhou, just stopping and accelerating again at each station will waste both energy and time.

A mere 5 min stop per station (elderly passengers cannot be hurried) will result in a total loss of 5 min x 30 stations or 2.5 hours of train journey time!

How it works (view the movie – in mandarin though!):

1. For those who are boarding the train : The passengers at a station embarks onto to a connector cabin way before the train even arrives at the station. When the train arrives, it will not stop at all. It just slows down to pick up the connector cabin which will move with the train on the roof of the train.

While the train is still moving away from the station, those passengers will board the train from the connector cabin mounted on the train’s roof. After fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof.

2. For those who are getting off: As stated after fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof. When the train arrives at the next station, it will simply drop the whole connector cabin at the station itself and leave it behind at the station. The outgoing passengers can take their own time to disembark at the station while the train had already left. At the same time, the train will pick up the incoming embarking passengers on another connector cabin in the front part of the train’s roof. So the train will always drop one connector cabin at the rear of its roof and pick up a new connector cabin in the front part of the train’s roof at each station.

Innovation?

Courtesy: Email forward by Neeraj

On the other hand an Indian friend of mine was recently offended when someone tried to greet her in the European way.

However these extremes examples apart, what I have observed are that people are much more accommodating while interacting with other cultures. For example parents of one of my friend demand that, at least in the first meeting, their daughter’s friends greet them formally. However a Columbian friend of mine greeted the same parents in a very casual and informal manner and they were cool about it.

This is probably because while interacting with people from other cultures, most people are very accommodating. Unless the person has a predetermined bias, they tend to take time in knowing the person before even forming the first opinion about him/her. Even after that the person is judged not on the basis of his actions but on the basis of their intention. This is a luxury that often people don’t give to someone from their own culture.

However it does not mean that one should not spend time in understanding and learning different cultures. In many high context societies there could be a stark difference between the verbatim and the literal meaning of any word or action. Hence often unknowingly one tends interpret the gestures, facial expressions and actions of others in accordance to the unwritten but widely accepted standards of their own culture. This is very true during courtship and dating where often things go so fast that the poor guy does not even realize what he did before it’s all over.

Sometimes even if you spend a lot of time in understanding and conforming to the etiquettes, your preparation is wasted when you meet someone whose parents are from 2 different cultures or someone who is not well integrated into the culture of region where you first met.

I am finishing my MBA on 13th March 2010. Like a bird that has spent his last 2 years inside a gilded prison I want to travel and explore the world. These are the places I want to go:

1. Melbourne
2. Johannesburg
3. Cairo
4. Istanbul
5. Mexico City
6. Hong Kong
7. Shanghai
8. Kerela
9. And lot more

I know for sure that if I don’t take this trip now, the next time I will be able to would be after 35 years maybe more. Star alliance, along with its partner airline, is able to give me a good deal on the flights and I am tempted to buy their tickets. However there are a lot of serious concerns that I have.

In the past, I applied for visas from USA, Singapore, Thailand, S Korea, Taiwan but it took me more time, trouble and money to obtain one from France. And this makes me think will it be a good idea to apply for a VISA from 15 countries. How much time will I have to spend at the embassy?

About the finances, I think I should be able to obtain a bank loan at 11-12% interest rate. This along with some of the money I had saved from my previous stint in gambling, stock market and betting should suffice for another 3 month long vacation.

Next and most important concern is a partner. No one in their right mind can take this 3 month long wild goose chase alone and I am finding it real hard to find one. The most optimistic reply I have received is that “there is an 80% chance that I won’t be able to make it to this trip”.

Probably it’s because of this I will either not take this trip or take a short trip to 1-2 country as a consolidation prize. I have been planning this trip (with different itinerary every time) for 4 years now, but every time had to put it off because of one reason or the other. Maybe it’s like the Hajj, there are 100 reasons why one should postpone, but when one is mentally ready he finds a way out of all the troubles.
Anyways the reason why I posted it here is because much like in the movie ‘Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain’ I would feel happy if someone else would live my dream or even better inspire me to take the journey.

सुर की नदियाँ हर दिशा से बहते सागर में मिलें बादलों का रूप ले कर बरसे हल्के हल्के मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा तो सुर बने हमारा मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा … मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा …

[ks-dev] चॉन्य् तरज़ तय म्यॉन्य् तरज़ इक-वट बनि यि सॉन्य् तरज़

[ks-nast]چأنِۂ ترز تدذ تَے میأنِۂ تدذ اِکوَٹہٕ بَنِہ یِہ سأنِۂ تدذ

[pa] तेरा सुर मिले मेरे सुर दे नाल मिलके बने एक नवा सुर ताल

[hi] मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा तो सुर बने हमारा

[sn-dev] मुंहिंजो सुर तोहि देसा पियारा मिले जडें गीत असांजो मधुर तरानो बने तडें .

[sn-nast] مُنهِنجو سُر توهِ ديسا پِيارا مِلي جَڊي گِيت اَسانجو مڍُر تَرانو بَني تَڊي

[ur] سر کی دریا بہتے ساگر میں ملے

[pa] बदलाँ दा रूप लैके बरसन हौले हौले

[ta] இசைந்தால் நம் இருவரின் சுரமும் நமதாகும். திசை வேறானாலும் ஆழிசேர் ஆறுகள், முகிலாய், மழையாய், பொழிவது போல் இசை, நம் இசை.

[kn] ನನ್ನ ಧ್ವನಿಗೆ ನಿನ್ನ ಧ್ವನಿಯ, ಸೇರಿದಂತೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಧ್ವನಿಯ .

[te] నా స్వరము నీ స్వరము సంగమమై, మన స్వరంగా అవతరించే

[ml] എന്റെ സ്വരവും നിങ്ങളുടെ സ്വരവും ഒന്നുചേര്‍ന്നു നമ്മുടെ സ്വരമായ് .

[bn] তোমার সুর মোদের সুর, সৃষ্টি করুক ঐক্য সুর.

[as] সৃষ্টি হো ঐক্যতান.

[or] ତୋମା ମୋରା ସ୍ବରେର ମିଲନ ସୃଷ୍ଟି କରେ ଚାଲଦୋଚତନ .

[gu] મળે સૂર જો તારો મારો, બને આપણો સૂર નિરાળો .

[mr] माझ्या तुमच्या जुळता तारा मधुर स्वरांच्या बरसती धारा .

[हिन्दी] सुर की नदियाँ हर दिशा से बहते सागर में मिलें बादलों का रूप ले कर बरसे हल्के हल्के मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा तो सुर बने हमारा मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा … तो सुर बने हमारा

This event always puzzled me. Because although some brave citizens did put up a strong resistance, it was not formidable enough. It was only during the weekend, when I visited Paris could I understand. Each and every road in Paris has so much history around it. The buildings are both beautiful and antique. In 3 days, I could barely touch few of the important monuments and it will take me atleast 2 more weekends before I am somewhat satisfied.
I am not convinced that:

It is easy to terrorize the civilized world into submission because they have too much to lose.

This was the statement made by Atilla the hun, when he tried to summarize the reason for his unprecedented success against the Roman and forcing them to pay a hefty tribute. Even today this explains the terror tactics of Jehadis and why USA is unable to curtain them.

If you haven’t visited Paris, then you have really missed a lot

The greatest achievement according to me is that all 13 of us (mostly first timers) reached the top and camped on the Peak.

Some famous one liners:
Every gram of weight matters !
one more VODKA please..!
- Aswani

Some snaps (taken by an unprofessional amateur) can be found here

BTW Economist has a nice audio series. Doing Business in XXX (foreign city). If you have time, just listen out what they have to say about the few important cities of the worlds (unfortunately India is still not covered)

1) Paragliding

2) spa

3) bicycle trail to Chennai

Sounds filmy… so did I thought, but then I looked at myself…. this weekend I not only learned how to ride a bike… that too after a brief 15 minutes flat tutorial from a reluctant friend….. And I learned it wonderfully enough to drive it over the hill slopes, highways of goa and even to places where there were no roads carrying a pillion who had no insurance…

my motivation?
Well I had 2…. first the wonderful bike ‘Natasha’…. and second my beautiful friend.

Who says real life cannot be filmy

Then to book international travel tickets:
Stic travels is specially useful. They get the best discounts, yet ensure hassle free luxurious travel.

Bus tickets use redbus. It has a very fast query engine. However its services are limited to Chennai / Bangalore originating routes and does not support KSRTC/government operators.

For train travel, I guess one has not much choice but to go for irctc. Even though it is the only govt body in my list, the service is good. Tickets get delivered in time. However the user interface needs lots of upgradation.