2010 to 2011 : An Year's worth of Nostalgia

I thought of naming it " a game of numbers" but then the title would have been  quite misleading given that this entry has nothing to do with numbers or mathematics or for that matter logic! What i intend to write over here is how the last year panned out. Given the fact that so many events have taken place and it gets really hard to document each of them, i shall do it crisply in a monthly breakup.

January 2010 - The month was frought with excitement what with the ISB campus scene hotting up for the batch. Nothing else was important enough to catch attention in the entire month. The term just passed away without any major happenings.

February 2010 - Brought with it my first job post MBA. Apollo selected me and it also initiated my first vacation from ISB in the last 10 odd months that i had been in Hyderabad. My first trip home from college :). Also completed an year of FB existence

March 2010 - Was the most happening party season. Parties were happening left, right and center and i was glad to be in the midst of it all with some wonderful friends. Started blogging as well.

April 2010 - The Graduation! Finally an ISB MBA under my belt. Also, the season of partings, some tearful, some hopeful and some with a sense of relief!! Got a chance for another road trip when i drove from Hyderabad to Jaipur with am amazing co-driver/partner/friend/human being and lastly wife :)

May 2010 - The entry into the big bad corporate world. The ship had finally run aground. Joined my job and started settling down to the concept of fixed working hours. Also the month where the daring decision to live in Chennai was finally being implemented. A learning curve on getting settled in any new cities. Learnt to run around with language problems and still get work done.

June 2010 - The first official trip happened and got to visit ISB again (Related post)

July 2010 - That one small change for me, a giant leap for Radhika! She got selected in Allahabad Bank as a PO and had to join in Jaipur. Heartbreaking, yes as she would leave but was happy to see that she is moving on in life onto her chosen and cherished career path.

August 2010 - The fall over of last month led to the development of my culinary skills. Had no option but to start cooking on my own. Thanks to a well established kitchen, free culinary guidance and technology, the dishes were ready to roll out of the kitchen :D.

September 2010 - The first visit home after joining job. Learnt the fact that its difficult to manage holidays with a 6 day week but what the hell. A few changes in the office and a first hand experience of change management implementation and its importance. Also came to know that wife is already set to move into her 2nd job!! A better one at that!!

October 2010 - A season of festivities. Diwali at home, Dusshera in Chennai. Travel all around

November 2010 - Mongolia!!! (Related post) . Got a chance to visit an exotic location for a project. Wife joined State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur as a PO with better chances of a chennai transfer.

December 2010 - Completed an year on twitter. 890 tweets in an year is not bad!! Visited Sudan (Related post) and came back in one piece to regale people with exotic location and engrossing encounters. Looking forward to an even better year ahead.

Throughout the year - continued being Optimistic about things, continued being a good friend (people disagreeing with this please meet me offline :X ), Most importantly, continued being what i am.

And finally,

The number game enter the scene with 2010 giving way to 2011. An insignificant addition of 1 but an occasion that changes the outlook of quite a few people on many things. A new year not only brings the old to an end but also brings with it a hope of a different year ahead.One which is peaceful, joyous, calm from an individual's perspective and one which is productive, profitable, engrossing and enriching from a company's perspective.

To each his own but nonetheless wishing everyone in the Blogopshere and to you (who took the trouble of reading it without taking the trouble to comment ;) ) a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011.

Surviving Sudan 101

OK so yet again I got the opportunity to travel to another godforsaken place typically seen on discovery as exotic/adventurous or on BBC/CNN as war and epidemic stricken but contrastingly to all these perceptions, Sudan (or atleast Khartoum where I was for 4 days) is an exact opposite.

It is as troublesome or peaceful as any other city on the planet. On getting hit by this reality, I thought I might as well pen down some “salient features” or tips for Sudan. In the unlikely event of you getting to travel here you may want to read through carefully or you can always call me!

1.     1.  Try to get your visit sponsored by a local person with contacts. Why I am saying this is because, you need to preprocess the visa from Khartoum and carry a print of the same. The trouble starts once you land and need to get an actual visa stuck to the passport. A local person with contact comes handy in this situation. Also, they charge $105 as of today as visa sticking fees…and we always thought that its only India where there is redtapism and bureaucracy

2.      2. The arrivals area outside the airport is without street lighting so be careful while carrying your luggage. Also I could not see any trolleys so better to travel light

3.       3. The taxis look as if they have been recently bombarded and then hurriedly painted in garish yellow to hide the blemishes. They are all very old Toyota models (oh yes…BBC showed this correctly). I am told they would be phased out next year but then forewarned is forearmed

4.       4.There is a visible lack of decent star rated or business hotels in the capital. Probably media driven but they are expected to be here in 4-5 years. Till then try your luck with the internet to find a place (a local contact is very helpful here). The existing hotels are also very expensive compared to the facilities they offer. I stayed at the Khartoum plaza hotel (sounds fancy eh ??) the basic single room was $105 per night and a luxury suite with 2 bedrooms was $205 per night. As we were 2 people on the trip, the suit worked out cheaper than individual rooms!!

 

5.       5.The Sudanese are very friendly and quiet people as in they do not trouble foreigners. There are a few beggars on the streets but they don’t cling on to you for dear life or till kingdom come and move away quickly. I had to move around a lot on foot and amidst local population but never was I made a subject for curious eyes and furtive laughter.

6.       6.At night, although it is not advisable to travel unaccompanied in any city, Khartoum is comparable to our Indian cities. I saw ladies driving all alone at around 10 in the night and also groups of men and women were visible at restaurants.

7.      7.  There is officially no alcohol available. Unofficially I could not get any information as my hosts were a gujju pure veg family.

8.    8. There are plenty of Bajaj autos on the roads driving at breakneck speeds just like Chennai. One difference in the structure is that the driver’s seat is fixed with a headrest and the wheels have sharp spokes jutting out a-la death race style so be careful!!

9.      9. Maalesh – sorry. Tamaam – in the sense of very good or are we good?. Shukraan – thank you. I did not need to use any other words as my local hosts spoke fluent Arabic. But still if you know Arabic, it’s a big help in the region.

10 10. The currency is Sudanese pounds mysteriously abbreviated as SDG. 1SP~ 2.5 USD as of today but they used to have old Sudanese pounds and sometimes refer to prices in old pounds. 1 new pound = 1000 old pounds so go figure out the price for yourself.

11 11. These people love to drink kava (coffee) or sha (tea) and they have it without milk. Many varieties of tea are available and I liked the Hibiscus tea the most!! The different food that I was able to taste included “eggplant chutney” and an “eggplant stew”. Like I said before, the schedule and the hosts were not conducive to palate experiments of the nutcase kinds (I can see Radhika heaving a sigh of relief at that!!).

12 12. All foreign visitors need to be registered at the foreign office for about $70 each without which you cannot leave the country so carry a spare photograph and allot one day for the process (if you are daring enough to attempt the feat yourself) or get it done through the hotel at about $80-$100 per person or best way is to ask your local sponsor to get it done for you :P.

13 13. The landscape is identical to many of our tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India but its fast changing and lot of construction is taking place.

14 14. Yeah, it’s the place where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet to form the single Nile river heading out to Egypt. That’s a nice place to visit.

15 15. I read that photography is not allowed unless you take a permit or you would be flogged publically so no pictures taken. Actually there was no time due to my schedule also.

16 16. And the worst piece of news is that north and south Sudan may separate ala India-Pakistan so January onwards may be a critical situation for some time, although as of now there was no indication of any tension in the air. Hope all happens peacefully.

Ok, the flight has been announced so leaving for it…but I hope I have not missed out on any other info of this type. I also hope more people get to visit Sudan and alleviate the misconceptions surrounding its conditions. It’s a nice place to be! Ciao!