Chicago GSB Rocks

This is my squad (in my Harper cohort) at Chicago GSB - people from all over the world. Good looking girls from USA, South Korea, Eastern Europe, and then there is the Indian and the Pakistani to add some diversity:-)
















My friends after having a couple of beers, and winning a competition in drinking beers and flipping cups:-)

Italia!

A lot of water has flown under the bridge, since I sent a long travelogue mail to my friends, so I thought I would share the latest of my travels with you, and also update you on the latest here:-)

This time it was another European destination - Italy. However, the process that got me to Italy this time round was very different. I didnt know much about the country, despite my visit there some years ago (while I was interning in Germany during undergrad), so I decided to buy myself a Lonely Planet on Italy. I had figure out what was worth seeing, where to stay, how to travel and what not. For those who havent used the Lonely Planet, it is an amazing wealth of travel information, which beats the powerful combination of Internet + Google anyday:-)

I spent long hours poring over hotel sites, and travel sites to put together a good enough plan for my rushed 5 day Easter weekend trip. And it turned out to be absolutely fantastic!!

The trip started off with me flying into Frankfurt and then catching a bus to the Frankfurt Hahn airport, which is a small village airport outside Frankfurt, and flies only cheap airlines (unlike the US, where most of the cheap airlines also fly out of the larger airports - Europe is a bit different). I had booked a hotel there for to change and shower, and thats when the adventure started. We landed up at the hotel to find that it was closed:-) Shivering in the lovely German summer temperature of 5 degrees Celsius, we ventured to ask an old lady walking by about the whereabouts of the hotel staff, and were duly informed that the owner was probably in a bar nearby! The owner was promptly smoked out of the bar, and we soon had a room:-) We caught a flight from Frankfurt Hahn to Rome, and landed in the middle of a bustling airport.

This is where my knowledge of Italy (all from the Lonely Planet) started coming into use. I remembered to guard my belongings like I always did in India (as if someone is always on the lookout to whisk them away from you). I also remembered that traffic signals and other rules are for advisory purposes only, and Italians are quite happy to bend them if it is convenient for them:-) Rome was quite abuzz with activity at 10.30 at night despite it being the start of a long weekend - and we happily checked into our hotel.

The hotel owner gave me a first hand experience of how Italians communicate. After I checked in, he told me in a rather grave and loud tone - "Gupta, this is not a hospital. You dont come to Rome for one night. Next time you better come here for a week."

I was stunned for a moment, and then realized that the owner meant well, and these guys tend to be a little direct and in-the-face!!! :-)

The next morning, I left the "hospital" and caught a train to Naples, and then another one to Sorrento, and finally a bus to Positano, which was my destination. It seems very tiring and time consuming, but it was actually a very beautiful journey, along the famed Amalfi coast. We had a view of the Mediterranean sea almost all the time, and the train/ bus drove right along the edge of the coast, oblivious of the cliffs that sometimes seemed periliously close! I couldnt soak in enough of the beauty, which was accentuated by the lovely blue cloudless skies, the clean air, and the freshly bloomed spring flowers that dotted the countryside.

Reached Positano in the afternoon, and was overjoyed to see what lay before me. A small town, built on a steep mountain facing the sea, littered with white houses, a winding road leading to the small beach at the bottom of the mountain, and the wide expanse of the sea in front of us. It was a sight to behold! After quickly checking into the hotel there, we walked down the steep stairs to the beach. The walk was more of a hike (similar to a trip from Vaishno Devi, for those who have been there!), and we reached the beach ready for a nice pizza and wine:-)

The wine had its desired effect, but I hadnt planned on the long hike back to the hotel, and decided to take the road instead of the steps this time. Bad idea. Reached about 45 mins later, completely sober, and extremely tired:-)

The next day was a day that I had been waiting for quite some time. It was a day of utter rest. It was a day that I finally decided to give up running around to check out everything that a city had to offer, and decided to grab a better, and just lie at the beach, and do nothing. It was a garangutan effort for me, and those who know me well will appreciate it:-) However, I was rejuvenated by evening time, and I promise you, the bikini clad Italian girls that nothing to do with it:-)!!!

Positano probably had more shops selling clothes than the whole of Paris! It was littered with shops selling all sorts of dandy clothing, and it was fun walking through these crowded streets, with the latest Italian fashion on display:-) The cheese that the restaurants used in the city was out of the world too. I am not a huge fan of cheese, for all the right reasons, given my weight, but I indulged and indulged this time! Be sure you eat cheese when you go to Italy next - its out of the world!

After the day of utter rest, the journey back to Rome began. However, the adventure was just starting. After a good 1.5hrs journey from Positano to Amalfi, we witnessed a harmless but interesting accident, where our bus rammed into a car. Crowds thronged the scene, as if it was India, and not Italy:-)!!!! It was fun to see! However, we couldnt check out the beauty of Amalfi for too long, because the bus information guy took my bus schedule, crumpled it in front of my eyes, and told me "No good today - Easter Sunday - different schedule"! So we rushed to catch another bus to Sorrento, only to be told that the train service had been suspended for the day too!!!!!! Now I was in a fix, but some helpless running around got me on a bus to Naples Airport, where I caught a train to Rome!!! So a 3 hour journey turned out to an 8 hour one - and I reached Rome dead dead tired at night.

Managed to see the Piazza Venezia, a magnificent structure that is so huge and imposing that one and only stare and wonder how they managed to do it! However I was careful enough to forget my camera at home, so you cant see any of it in my photos:-) A Google search can help you here:-)

I finally got on my flight back the next day from Frankfurt, and I was back to the grind soon enough.

However, it was a lovely lovely trip, and there are such good memories!!! Feel free to check them out at photos.yahoo.com/daredevil_inc under the Italy folder!!!

Take care, and if you managed to reach the end of the mail, kudos to you. Not too many achieve it!!!!!:-)

India Trip!

Guys, Its been quite some time since I sent out a nice refreshing email about things at my end, so here I am again!This time, the destination is a well known one, but not quite. I was back in India after one and a half years, and enjoyed myself thoroughly for a variety of reasons:-)

To begin with the most important one, I wanted to share with you (in case you dont already know, through me, or a friend of mine, or some other gossip channel!), that I had my roka (pre engagement for those who dont understand), with Pridhee Kapoor, a junior of mine from IIT Delhi, and the love of my life.

The answer to the obvious question - "So when are you getting married" is that I dont know, but it should be around the end of next year!:-) She is yet to finish off her PhD in Germany, and will be studying there for another year. Which is why I cant give you the exact date. The details will follow...:-)

To come back to the India trip - well, I landed at the Bombay airport, and had to spend 6 hours or so at the airport for my connection to Delhi. I was really not looking forward to this wait, but I was quite amazed by the facilities at the Bombay airport. Many airports offer lots of luxuries to business class passengers, but this was the first airport that I have seen, that offers comfortable, clean beds to economy class passengers, for free! I had quite a nice time there, and happily made my way to Delhi:-)

Delhi is exactly the same as it was when I left, in most ways. What struck me different this time was the absolute lack of haggling or negotiations with the customs officials. I passed through the green channel, and no one even so much as looked towards me! I was ready to dance right there (given that I was carrying a nice golf set with me, which would have had customs officials pounce upon me a couple of years back!).

The traffic had me on the edge for the next couple of hours. I dont know how to describe what I saw, but traffic in Delhi seems to be going in all directions at the same time! You would think that since you are on the correct side of the road, the traffic would flow in the correct direction. Well, well well. Traffic was going in all directions - you could easily hit a scooter coming right at you on your side of the road, as you could hit the biker taking a swinging right without caring to look over his shoulder. I was utterly convinced that we are going to be get involved in an accident atleast a hundred times before the 30 mins ride ended! But funnily, there is order in chaos, and nothing happened. Life goes on! I was amazed to say the least. The thing to wonder about is, that if I was so startled by this, when I have lived here for two decades, how would the poor non-Indians feel when they landed!:-) I feel sorry for them in some ways!!

I reached Chandigarh for Diwali, and what a loud, sparkling Diwali it was! I had so much fun with all the anars and chakris that I couldnt get myself to stop! Fireworks are so much more fun when you light them, and not just stand somewhere and watch a display (as you do everywhere outside India!). Burfis and laddoo and loads of halwa! I ate as if there was no tomorrow! I love festivals in India!

After Diwali I went beserk shopping! And I soon realized that India is not the cheapest place in the world to shop after all. I could get a things for a similar price in USA as well. But it was so much more fun shopping here! You had the pleasure of haggling:-)!!! I think I finally understood what retail therapy means:-)

Pridhee and her parents came over to Chandigarh, and we had a fun time together, shopping, and eating. It was as if life revolved around these activities!:-) (I have gained weight by the way, needless to say!) The roka happened at our place on 10th Nov (which will be my anniversary till I get married, I suppose! - mark the date!) - and there was a nice little party after that. Lots of dhol wallas made their way to our house as the party started, and despite all my requests, stayed put outside the house. Eventually, some of us got drunk enough to start dancing to their beats, and all of a sudden, everyone was dancing! I certainly made the most of eat, and danced away till they stopped!:-) I love to dance in clubs etc. but the fun of dancing to the tune of the dhol is something very different!

And as I danced, I signed away my bachelorhood:-)



I made my way back to Delhi after the roka, and chilled out there for a day before finally heading out for USA. After my inital scare with the traffic, I came back with a vengence, and drove like a true Dilliwala for a day! The most amazing thing was when I was honked at for stopping at a red light!:-) I loved it!

I am back in the USA now, back to the lovely job that I have. I am back to thinking about my Cingular minutes, and the price of gas (which has actually come down). But this trip told me one thing for sure - there is no place like home. And I am dead sure that I want to go back to India! I hope life will allow me to do that!

For those interested in photos, check out photos.yahoo.com/daredevil_inc under the Roka folder. View the photos from END to Beginning - I managed to upload them the wrong way!Namaskaar, aur sabhi yatri gan ko savdhan kiya jaata hai, ki agli flight delayed hai:-)

Motaji

Romania!

Well well well, I am back! A close Romanian friends wedding took me to Bucharest, the capital of Romania this time, and since I have this dying urge to share my experience with my friends, I am here, writing to you, even as I try to shake off the jet lag, that invariably accompanies me all the time!:-)

For the beginners, Romania is an Eastern European country, that borders with Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova (ever heard of this one?) and Bulgaria amongst others. It also has the Black Sea and the Danube to boast of. With a population of ~22 million, it isnt much of a dent on the world's population, but has a serious number of beautiful girls, and handsome guys there, which automatically makes it an interesting place to visit:-)

The trip began on a great note, with my taking off from Philadelphia on a Air France flight, not knowing that I would be missing the Live 8 Concert happening there over the weekend:-) However, the happiness ended the moment I got to Paris.

I strongly urge you to avoid the Charles De Gaulle airport at Paris like the plague - it is by far the worst airport I have been to, and the oft abused Delhi airport is world class when compared. The French have built a sprawling airport, but forgot the connect the 6 terminals that they have. Which means that ~50% of people connecting at the airport miss their flights! I also managed to miss mine, but then I managed to find a lovely neatly designed staircase to sleep on for the 6 hours before I caught my connecting flight to Bucharest! However, I distinctly remember looking at a lot less fortunate people who had to make to do with resting on the stair's sidebars!

Bucharest greeted me with a blast of memories from India. The place reminded me so much of home, that I was truly amazed. The drive from the airport to the city's center introduced me to a city that was just a cleaned up version of Delhi! The cars there were the same as in India (Daewoo Cielo's and Matiz, Skoda's and even Maruti Vans!). The driving was even more like Delhi - which basically meant that the lanes were purely on an advisory capacity, and red lights were meant to treated as slow down signals! The city however, was quite open uncongested, unlike any Indian city I know:-)



Met with the bride and groom to be (Iuliana and Mihai, respectively), at the hotel and was immediately asked to change and join the bachelor's party. There were other friends from Seattle with us, and I was quite at home! The details of the bachelor party, as well as the photos have been withheld, on strong requests from all concerned, but I will assure you that Romania is a great place to party in:-)

The next day was a planned tour of Dracula's castle! Transylvania, the land of Count Vlad Dracula, is a part of Romania, and a very beautiful part of the country. The 10 or so of us non-Romanian's attending the wedding took a small bus and were accompanied by 2 very spirited guides who told us a lot about the country and the culture, and the background of Dracula. Notwithstanding a couple of close calls that our driver had on the road, and the stalling of the bus as it ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, the drive was a pleasant one:-) Dracula was known for his cruelness - which he also did a good job of advertising - and his most terrifying acts of cruelty were that of implaling his enemies - which means that he put a long wooden pole through the rear of the person which would come out from the upper back - while the person was alive! And the yet alive people would be put up outside the castle to scare the hell out of anyone who ventured there!



The castle wasnt a large palace, but a nice place (with very small doors and celing - the person couldnt have been more than 5 feet in height!), on top of a mountain, overlooking the valleys. After looking at the castle, we decided to have some Vampire red wine, ironically:-) The wine lifted our spirits sufficiently, and we had a lot of fun at the Romanian lunch, which was lots and lots of pork, with polinka (a very very very strong version of alcohol, which comes amazingly close to pure ethanol) - which obviously drove our spirits even higher! I do have photos of another castle that visited on our way back, but from the dizzying heights of inebriatedness, I didnt remember much!

The next day was the wedding. I had never attended an Orthodox Christian wedding, but I must say it was a lovely experience. The church that Iuliana had chosen was an astoundingly beautiful one, and we were all amazed by the exteriors as well as the interiors. As the other marriage party left the church, we made our way in, along with the bride, who was in a lovely white dress, with her bridesmaids. The groom followed behind her, since that would be the way life would be for him for the rest of his life:-) The choir filled up the church with its voice, as did the priest conducting the marriage. I was told later that he was quite drunk, since he is to sip wine each time he weds a couple (the couple also sip wine), and he had already done a couple of weddings that morning! The rites were simple enough, and funnily, did not end with the priest saying "and now you may kiss the bride..." - or maybe he did - but since I didnt understand Romanian...:-) The ornate robes worn by the priests, the ornate church, and the lovely dresses of the ladies had me all impressed.

Following the wedding, was the longest ever wedding party that I have attended. And at the end of it, my respect for the Romanian capacity to party shot up a zillion times. The party, if I remember correctly started at about 5pm, and it lasted, or rather I lasted till 5 am, while the older gentlemen, amazingly enough, lasted longer, till about 7am. The live band played through the evening and night, and the people drank, danced, ate, laughed, and partied. I have never had more fun at a wedding! There was Romanian dance, which I also took part in, followed by an elaborate 7 course meal, of which I could only got to the 4th. And then there was the wedding cake! Oh what a wild night of party that was!


After coffee and pastry the next afternoon, I was finally in a position to go out and have a look at the city. A bunch of us visited the Romanian museums of art and found, to our amazement, that there was not a single, not one, painting with a happy woman in it - they were all sad, without exception! It was quite amazing. We also had a quick look at the 2nd largest building in terms of area (the 1st being the Pentagon), which is now the Romanian parliament (they only use about a quarter of it - the rest is vacant!), and a lot of other ancient architecture in the city - opera houses, palaces, academy of sciences, and more. A very beautiful city to say the least. However, the rain gods werent too happy with our all night parties, and gave us some rain to drive us back to the hotel:-(

Left the next morning for New York, dreading the French connection, but this time I changed my flight to get there 4 hours in advance!:-) I carried back about 40,000 Romanian Lei with me (1$ = 35,000 Lei :-) ) - which is now a good collection, since the country changed it currency denomination the weekend that I was there (and now $1 = 3.5 Lei):-)

Life is treating me well, hope its good at your end. Write back, if you get this far in my mail!

Photos are at photos.yahoo.com/daredevil_inc under the Romania folder!