Stranded for one day at CDG Airport , Paris

My trip from Detroit to Paris was nice, except for the fact that my inflight entertainment system was not working. But I was spending my time chatting with the fellow passenger - he seemed a nice person. He was from Nigeria, now working in Detroit as a physician , going to meet his parents in Nigeria. I had a good sleep and the flight reached Paris at around 8:40 am local time. My next flight was to Bangalore, from a different terminal and just 1 hour after .

So I went out from the plane, took the shuttle, and then reached for the other flight. As I was walking through the corridor, I reached out for my passport in my waist bag. My waist bag was not there !!!!!!!!

I was a bit nervous, as I kept the bag always with myself, and it had all the important stuff, like the passport, flight tickets, some money. That morning itself I had kept the flight tickets in my shirt pocket - so my tickets were there with me , but my passport was not .

I hurriedly went up to the Air France desk , and told them I have lost my passport. The lady said me , "without a passport, you cannnot board the aircraft". Added to that I did not have a Schengen visa , so I could not go anywhere out of the airport. The lady enquired the shuttle buses , and one of them informed that there were no such bag in the bus. My last hope was the second shuttle, which did not call for the last 30 mins, and henceforth the lady from Air France took me to the police where she narrated the happenings to them. They had spoken in French so I could not understand the conversation. I was not in a mood to understand any conversations.. I was only wondering if I could ever go back to India, and when the lady was speaking about the embassy ... I was getting more nervous. I cant describe what went through my mind at that point of time .

I was stranded inside the CDG, Paris Airport ... hoping to catch the next day's flight to Bangalore.

Leaving for Bangalore - the first leg

Earlier Baba had told me several times, when he was posted to Calcutta from Delhi, he did not have sleep that night . I always thought that how can this be possible . On the night of 31st Dec 2008 I also had the same feeling - I did not sleep till 3 am that night.

Today I had left Milwaukee at 1:40 pm for Detroit. In the ticket the arrival timing at Detroit was displayed at 3:50 pm.But on asking a co passenger of mine she replied Detroit is 1 hour ahead of Milwaukee, and the trip duration would be for 45 minutes . I reached Detroit in the scheduled time, and had 2 hours of spend. I started spending the 2 hours visiting shops, checking out the duty free shops, and roaming around . My next flight was on the same terminal/ concourse but was 40-45 gates away ... it was an Air France flight on A60 . Even though I had arrived in the terminal well before time ,I went in for the NWA express train, which was an unmanned electric train connecting terminals.

Talking / Video sharing - life is busy, technology makes it easy

Recently I have started talking on Skype again. Skype is a wonderful tool as it allows free calls to another user and also free video conferencing. Actually BSNL calling cards have become very cheap, one can call to USA at Re 1.00 per min !!!!! ... even the cheapest calling cards in USA charge 0.03 cents per minute , which is more than Indian Re. 1.00.

Though I was talking to Ma , Ritu, everyday, I did not get the chance to talk to Sonamoni. Yesterday and today , I spoke with Sonamoni and even saw her pictures. She is so cute. In the video I can see her, doing all sorts of pranks and telling me "Baba, bhalo theko". She has just turned two years this 1st December , the day I started working in USA .

She is wonderful . I captured some snapshots of her while talking to her. In the snapshots she was drinking water ... the pictures are so sweet .

Today I had been to Kohls to get some dresses for her, but as it is winter, they dont have dresses now... most of them were winter dresses, nice dresses with fur lining, not suitable for India, unless we move to Kashmir .... which is a absurd idea. So I bought three tops for her. I shall check in Mayfair mall tomorrow, to see if I can find something for her at GAP .

I also brought wrist watches for Rangapishi, Chotokaku, Ritu and Baba. I bought a pair of comfy slippers for Ma, - probably they shall be better than the massage slippers Ma wears right now.

Could not take anything for my Baba .... how I wish he was there ... he is there by my bedside ...he is always with me.

Winter in Wauwatosa

Winter in Wauwatosa,WII have come to Wauwatosa on the 29th Nov 2008. It was a nice feeling coming down to USA, even though I had to change four flights. In fact this was my first international trip.

I had landed in Wauwatosa, or Tosa as it is commonly called by the locals here around 5:30 pm. While landing , I was coming from Minneapolis - Tosa on a connecting flight, I saw everything was white ... by snow. I had started thinking how can live here, I was just wearing normal clothes and a jacket ; the thermals were inside the suitcase. It was very nice to see the snow, but I was thinking to myself how shall I manage it.

Unlike the other airports, Milwaukee Airport was a very small airport, a small passage, everything was small. I had come through Schipol, Minneapolis, and so this one seemed a really small one. After collecting my luggage, all of them which were intact, I proceeded to collect a trolley. But somehow, the trolley would not come out. Then I saw that it was a pay trolley - one needed to pay one dollar in a vending machine to get a trolley !!!!!!!! I collected all the three luggages and dragged them out of the airport , as the trolley machine was not working. There I stood for sometiime and got a cab, which took me to the motel I was supposed to stay in. .. Extended Stay America, Wauwatosa - the cab driver took $36 , and I gave hime $4 as a tip !! I thought it was okay, but later I found out that $4 could have bought me a nice dinner!!

The hotel was nice; and the rooms even nicer. I was very tired , as I was travelling for 25 hours by flight, I had a good shower , and then went to Denny's a nearby food joint to have my dinner. I did not wear my thermals till that time, and I was enjoying the cold weather. .. well it was still manageable. I am putting up a photo of Wauwatosa, WI, which I got via the Zementa plug in ... its a plugin every blogger should have.

After my dinner, I came back home, and called up Ma, and Ritu .... it was 5 am at India. I checked the television for sometime, there were only 14 channels in the television so it was not DTH ... I was used to 120 channels in India. The premium US channels were missing. .... what a bad luck .

The next day was a Sunday, so did not much of a tension for office. Went to sleep quite late.

P.S. The post date was showing the date and time ( IST ), I changed it Wisconsin Central time.

26/11 - Terror attack on Mumbai - Taj / Oberoi on fire

The terror attack at Mumbai on 26/11/2008 has proved to be a deadly attack as it still continues even after 48 hours . The terrorists attacked in various parts of the city, Colaba, CST terminus, the airport, Ville parle, and suddenly Mumbai was under the terrorists.

The famous Taj Mahal hotel, Oberoi Trident , all situated in the Colaba region, has been under heavy terrorist attack.

It has been fourty eight hours and Mumbai is bleeding.

Another new day, new fun, new quarell

Yesterday, the medical tests got over and every passing day here, means that my trip to US is coming near. Later in the day, after Ritu had arrived from her office, we spent some quality time with Sonamoni.

During the evening Sonamoni said "Auto kore jabo". Sonomoni was having fever from the afternoon because of the season change, so all of us were worried about her. Later we decided around 8:30 pm to take Sonamoni along to a nearby shopping mall which has recently opened in our locality.

The earlier known Kempfort has now given place to Total shopping mall, and a couple of weeks back I had taken Sonamoni there to get her the birthday present as I wont be in India during her birthday.

We took a auto , went to Total and bought some gifts for Nadia, Auli's daughter. Richard and Mesho shall be coming to meet me on the 30th Nov, so I can hand over the gifts for Nadia. We bought some toys , one being a puzzle and the other that had to do with understanding sequences. These toys looked good to me as they would adding IQ to Nadia; also thought about buying the same for Sonamoni but she is too young ... chooooto Sonamoni . We love the pranks she makes , dont want to make her that serious right now. Alongside I have uploaded a picture of Nadia.

By this time Ritu and I had a quarell, amongst ourelves. As usual the effect of the quarrel was felt till today morning. Neither of us likes this thing , but it happens all the time.

Today morning before leaving Ritu , peeped past the door to see if I was coming to see her off , when she was leaving for office. I went just to see her go down the stairs. On the contrary Ritu has made dhokar dalna for dinner tonight.

Reminds me of Iris, the song by Goo Goo Dolls "When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am".

Broken - Shattered - Fixed .... the story goes on.

Third marriage anniversary - becomes just another day

Today was our third marriage anniversary. Ritu had a off day, and I managed to take a leave too, so both of us could be at home. As Ma and Sonamoni were also there it happened to be a perfect day.

I started off the day with wishing Ritu , a happy marriage anniversary. It was Preeti's birthday too, and after I had wished her, she wished me happy anniversary too. Rangapisi too called up and wished both of us. Ma also wished us . Ritu's Baba who is in Barrackpore right now, also wished us a happy anniversary.

As for the breakfast, Ritu was lenient today in making luchi and cholar dal. I ate a lot of luchis, ( did not count the numbers) ; I like it very much. Sonamoni had luchi with mixed fruit jam. It was a nice breakfast to start the day .

Today we had planned to sort out the BSNL broadband issue, an erroneous bill of Rs. 30,000 had come, so we were supposed to meet the Area Manager (Indiranagar ) to sort it out. When we went to BSNL office it was around 11 :30 am , and the area manager had left. I then went to the Customer Relations Officer (CRO) and he said that the bill can not be waived of, only they can charge for the 2 days, according to the Home 250 plan. The bill for those 2 days was also coming at Rs. 6000+ ; the CRO said it can only be waived off if the DGM approves it.

We checked with an auto rickshaw for the route, and we headed for the Telecom Bhavan on Ritu's Activa Honda. It took around 30 mins to reach there. I did not know the route, so we had to ask several persons to get the correct route.

The DGM was a nice person, he listened to us, but said he can not waiv it off. That was very unfortunate for us ; as we had only come here to get the waiver - now we needed to pay out Rs. 6000+ . Both of us did not like the idea at all , we could have done so many good things with the money.

While returning back home , we were passing through Shivajinagar, a market place for furnitures in Bangalore. We were planning to get a sofa set for quite sometime ; so today we stopped to check out one. After checking out various shops, we found one sofa set ( 3 + 2) at Rs. 11,000. The price was reasonable I guess compared to the other stuff which we had checked out - the other were mainly in the Rs 16K to Rs 19K range. We had liked one more nice fashionable set, but it was around Rs. 16,000 - but again that set was something which would have looked pretty nice for a second garden sofa - maybe we shall try that later. It was 4 pm .

Then we went back to BSNL, Indiranagar and paid the bill , which was now Rs. 10000 instead of the Rs. 30000, which we had initially received. We reached home around 5:45 pm .... whew .. a long journey.

Back home , we had paratha and chicken, ( Ritu was not fond of my paratha idea - as in the morning we had luchi ) , but however I got past Ritu to have some paratha. Both of us gobbled up quite a number, as we had only Pepsi and potato chips in between.

Then we took some rest, spent time with Sonamoni by playing with her, and addressing all her pranks. Ma was also assured that the BSNL issue had been solved.

We had told Sonamoni that we would taking her out for an auto ride - she went to Ritu and told , "Mmm , ta ta jabi , auto kore". Neither of us could ignore this small request from her, so after a photo session , - Maa took two of our snapshots - it was nice showing Maa how to take pictures. Ritu was wearing a Mysore Silk , Rangapishi had presented her this time , when she had gone to Dum Dum - she was looking gorgeous.

Ritu, Sonamoni and me took an auto rickshaw from our house to erstwhile Kempfort, which had been transformed to a shopping mall, Total. We took a round trip in an auto and got down at N.R. Layout - the auto rick took Rs. 50, but it our marriage anniversary and after all Sonamoni had asked for it - so there was nothing to think over.

After spending around 20 -30 mins in NR layout, we came back to home, only to get ready for the next day for office.

Sonamoni has got a gift - Childrens Day 2008

Celebrating Children's Day, our oganisation has given a gift to the employees who are having a child.

I was one of the lucky few, and just right now I have received a beautiful gift wrapped pack from the HR.

I shall hand it over to Sonamoni once I reach home , instead of the regular chocolate she aks for when I open the door.

My trip to USA gets shortened

I was supposed to go to USA for 6 - 8 months, and was pretty excited about that . The trip was supposed to be starting in the end of September 2008 and the place was Wauwatosa, a small town off Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Then came the global meltdown, as the investment banks saw Wall Street going down. With the economies moving north - Lehman brothers going bankrupt, AIG USA being bailed out by the US Govt, Goldman Sachs, a leading investment banker turning itself to the retail banking, General Motors about to file for bankruptcy if there is no bailout, Merrill Lynch being taken over by Bank of America, things have started looking bleak. The Wall Street effect has been felt across many the globe, and the Indian stock markets have plummeted down.

The Indian IT which has 80% - 90% of its client base in the USA, has been affected again. The September 11th, 2001 ( 9/11 ) disaster in USA had left India high and dry as many companies scurried for cover. It should have been a spot-on lesson for Indian companies , to see other ways to grow their business, but somehow the message didnt get through to the Indian companies. Seven years after the attack, Indian companies are focussing in European region for their business.

The Wall Street meltdown again had its effect on Indian IT, as it saw closure of various projects for Wipro, Infosys and other IT majors. Added to that, as a cost cutting measure, various foreign companies have kept their projects on the pipeline. That has resulted in most Indian IT services companies having very less projects.

Today I got my update on the US trip I was talking about, from 6 months it has been reduced to 1 month .... the project shall go on till mid 2009 , but from Bangalore.

My plans of getting "rich" also melted down. Ma and Ritu are very happy that I dont need to stay for 6 months in USA; infact Rangapishi said me she was happy too . Everyone was very worried about the cold ,winters are harsh out there, with temperatures dipping to -35C (degree Celsius ) . Someway I also felt good, - maybe it was a start of a business development program. Or maybe it was the start of the architecture role , I always think about being.

Sad that I shall be missing out on Sonamoni's 2nd birthday, which shall be on 1st December 2008. The date coincides with my start date of work in USA - maybe I shall leaving this month end.

Sonamoni and Ritu are coming back tomorrow

Sonamoni and Ritu are coming back tomorrow from their trip to Calcutta. They had been there for the last week. One day they had gone to our home in Dum Dum , and Rangapisi have given Sonamoni two frocks and to Ritu , a silk saree from Rangapisi's collection.

Ma and me are here in Bangalore; we have got a very good maid servant Mary who is quite elderly and looks after Sonamoni and also does the household work. She shall be taking a leave tomorrow , and so Ma shall be at home alone. But Ma has become better now, and the maid servant shall cook tomorrows food today.

Need to make arrangements to bring Ritu and Sonamoni tomorrow.