The Turn-Style

How many of us have passed through turnstiles? Do we ever remember them once we have successfully passed through them? Perhaps they are best remembered only before we are about to get turn through them for the fear of either being caught mid way or not allowed to turn and go to the other side.

Likewise, the challenges in life are like turnstiles. We initially fear these, because we have never tested our limits of overcoming challenges. We always take them as the biggest burden on our back, no matter how easy they may eventually turn out to be. We are colored in terms of our innate ability to be successful in all our endeavors and not be a failure. As a result of this unreasonable blurred logic that brings in more partiality against success, we hate challenges and don’t want to pass through them as we believe we won’t be there on the other side with success, after overcoming them.

It is however not very difficult to overcome these challenges in life at various stages. These challenges are the equivalent of being a boat in the sea that rocks up and down due to the turbulence and buoyancy of the sea. The boat rocks up and down, but it is still able to sustain its momentum and move ahead. Per Newton’s third law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so what goes up has to come down. Similarly the challenges that come up in life for any of us, have to go down the history of our existence after our successful conquest. And as these go down in the annals of history, on the boat called life we march ahead with the oars of optimism firmly clenched in our hands. The experience of this entire journey is worth cherishing for the rest of our lives.

The only reason why we are not optimistic about accepting challenges is because we fear of failure. But in the end, if one ponders deeper – what is it that we fear of? We fear of failure from what? We fear of failure from not trying anything and yet failing? Why can’t we boost ourselves and say – “Come on, let me have a go at it, I am sure I will overcome this. If not overcome, I will definitely have learnt something”. This small seed of optimism in our thought and approach can create a magic which will set us up for much greater wins in life. It’s all in the mind. The challenge is to take more challenges and assure yourself that you are going to overcome them. Even if you are not overcoming them, but are caught in between them, the optimism in your approach, the spring in your stride would definitely help you battle the challenges and emerge a winner.

Hope this will help you to pass through your mental turnstiles and perhaps make you “Turn-Style: Turn your fears in style” by embracing more challenges and converting them to opportunities.

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I was a regular contributor on the erstwhile "Personality Development" which is now called "Individuality" in Boloji.com at link (click in link) since 1999-2000. The above article was posted in Boloji.com on 2nd June 2010 after a 5-6 year hiatus. Look forward to bring in all my articles from Boloji to this blog.

Norway:Oslo:Holmenkollen Ski jump

Holmenkollen Ski Jump

Background:

There are not many commercial tourist attractions in Oslo which are really “must see”. Though Norway and the area around Oslo is richer than most parts of the world in pristine natural beauty, the city is still kind of working on its share of world famous man made landmarks which are usually famous around the world – like Big Behn, Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa etc.  One of the places that would potentially come to identify the city with its towering shape and structure is the Holmenkollen Skii jump. 

Getting there:

To get there, one has to take a T- Bane (Metro) from Oslo Sentrum to Majorstua. From Majorstua there is usually a combination of T-Bane + Bus that needs to be taken to get to Holmenkollen. Holmenkollen is just 2 stops before the last stop Voksenkollen, which is famous for skiing during the winter months. Currently the Norwegian government is busy building infrastructure (T-Bane’s that will directly take you up the hill till Holmenkollen from Oslo Sentrum) in preparation for the 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships that this ski jump would be hosting. In general the journey is about 45 minutes from Oslo Sentrum. This was the last place we saw in Oslo on July 25th 2010, before we left for Stavanger. Being a rainy and cloudy day, our plans to go to Bygdoy island to visit the Norwegian Culture museum were cancelled. So we chose Holmenkollen and indeed were not disappointed - neither by the weather and nor by the place.

Holmenkollen Skii Jump

Holmenkollen Ski Jump:

The Holmenkollen ski jump, is host to the world's second oldest notable ski jump competition still in existence.Every year, more than a million tourists visit the ski arena.One has to walk along the gravel path around the base where the skii jump ends and circle along a small hill to reach the first base. If one wished to go up further till the start of the skii jump, there is a small 4 compartment train attached to the back of the ski jump, which can take one to the top for a panoramic view.

This is what a ski jumper will see while sliding down

The capacity of the stands is 50,000 spectators.
The tower offers a panoramic view of Oslo and the Oslofjord. It is indeed scary and at the same time magnificient to adore the slope of the skii jump, the great height we are at and the scene of the Oslo fjords and water beyond.

An indication of the steep slop of the skii jump

Today's tower extends 60 meters above ground, and 417 metres above sea level.The first time it was used for skiing was in 1892, after which this slope was built multiple times to be what it is today. In fact in the early days, during winter the Norwegian King used to take the "Tram" to come till Holmenollen for skiiing, along with the normal public. It is indeed heartwarming to see the down to earth nature of the Norwegian Royal family. There is a picture of the same in the Skii museum which accompanies the ski jump during one such trips of the King. Around this area, we then sat down and had some lunch packed from home - sambhar rice, curry and curd rice. I also had a beer to wash all that spice down. Be it US, UK or Norway - you can never take the curd rice out of the South Indian!

Ski Museum:

Blasted out of the bedrock beside the Holmenkollen jump is the Ski Museum. The world’s oldest museum devoted to skis and the history of skiing with its exciting exhibitions. It is owned and administered by ’Skiforeningen’ (The Association for the Promotion of Skiing).

Entrance to the skii museum

Shop with skii memorabilia inside the museum

Mannequin of a small kid with ski's

The Ski Museum illustrates 4000 years of skiing history with rock carvings, skis from the viking age.Once can also not fail noticing the contribution of the Norwegian Royal Family to turn Skiing into a positive sport for the people of Norway and celebrate it as an occasion to go out with your family and enjoy the snow through skiing. Before such an initiative, the harsh climate in Norway with snow all around and the fact of using skii's were not welcomed well or looked positively. Norway infact has had soldiers who have used ski's to patrol through the rougher and inaccessible part of the mountains, with a gun in their hands. There were also lot of skii exercises demonstrated in pictures for these soldiers. This way of harnessing nature is indeed a positive way of overcoming the obstacles that the nature can bestow on different geographies around the world. 

Painting showing Horse with ski's

Some of the other peculiar artefacts in the skii museum were also the different varieties of ski's that have evolved over the years, the various miniature models of Holmenkollen, showing its evolution over the years as a skiing place. It also shows one of the world's first ski maps, the skiing kits of the Royal Family of Norway and also ski's designed for horses of all the people!

Skis from various parts of Norway show local handicraft skills and traditions.

Me, with the collection of skis

 

US - at the Homnekollen Ski Jump

A old model cabin where they made skii's earl

A ski jumper sees this while jumping down Holmnekollen

In Holmenkollen there is a simulator in which visitors may experience for themselves the heart-stopping thrills of ski jumping and downhill racing. We refrained from doing that as we experienced the thrill of ski-ing much better in the winter of 2009-10 when we did cross country skiing for the first time in Voksen Kollen. Also there was a long waiting period for the simulator (which were limited in numbers - 2), which made us to wrap up our short trip and take the bus + T-Bane (Metro) back home.

Norway:Oslo:Vigeland Sculpture Park

Fall colors just after summer in October

For a tourist or a temporary resident in Oslo city,  staying in can be very quiet if you are coming from the more noisy areas of the world like India etc. It takes sometime for the city to get onto you and for you to start enjoying its various non-commercial tourist attractions. One of the places me and my wife had indeed grown to like was the Vigeland Sculpture Park which is about 3 Km from Oslo Sentrum. There are numerous ways to get to Vigeland Park – by Tram (Tram # 12 from Oslo Sentrum, towards Majorstua), Taxi or by walk. We preferred the latter the most as it was a very enjoyable walk (half an hour) from our earlier residence in St. Hanshaugen. We used to walk down almost every weekend (both days) to meet our group of Indian colleagues to play badminton in the lush green outfield of Vigeland Park. At times we used to just walk down to laze around on the grass / benches and sip home brewed Indian tea and munch on some biscuits and light snacks. At times our social circle would also organize barbeque or “pot luck” and we used to have a blast – conversing, eating, pulling each others legs and playing badminton.

Vigeland Sculpture Park is a part of Frogner Park and it covers 80 acres (320,000 m²) and features 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland. Gustav is one of the most reputed Norwegian Sculptors active between 1869 and 1943. Vigeland personally sculpted every figure out of clay and individual craftsmen were contracted to fabricate the pieces into what they are today.

Ambani brothers?

Captions added by some miscreants

Vigeland personally sculpted every figure out of clay and individual craftsmen were contracted to fabricate the pieces into what they are today.

Would be my pose after a famous win in life

The expression on most of these sculptures would stun you, as you walk down the Vigeland Park. The sculptures are showing a range of human emotions - of love, fights, bonding, man embracing the beast, man bonding with wife, man playing with kids etc. You would definitely find some part of you, your life or people staring onto your eyes out of one of those sculptures. Most of the sculptures are naked, so i had to indeed pick and choose the ones that were decently covered through their poses for maintaining the sanctity of this blog!



These works of art reside along an 850 meter-long axis divided into six sections: The Main Gate, The Bridge, The Children’s Playground, The Fountain, The Monolith Plateau and the Wheel of Life.

The Monolith of Life from a distance

The Monolith towers 14.12 meters (46.32 ft) high and is composed of 121 human figures rising towards the sky. This is meant to represent man’s desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine. It portrays a feeling of togetherness as the human figures embrace one another as they are carried toward salvation.

View from The Bridge

 The picture adjacent is a nice picture taken from "The Bridge" which has lake on both sides. You can see lot of greenery for miles together and birds flying with gay abandon.

On the benches seen below, lot of folks come with their kids and family to spend sometime in the evening, enjoying nature, having conversations and in the process momentarily forgetting the mundane problems life poses.

Wheel of Life as seen from the Monolith Plateau

At the end of the 850-meter-long axis lies a sundial, forged in 1930, and finally the Wheel of Life, crafted in 1933-34. The wheel is more or less a wreath depicting four people and a baby floating in harmony. It is a symbol of eternity, and implies the overall theme of the park: man’s journey from the cradle to the grave.

The Fountain

Originally designed to stand in front of Parliament , the Fountain was fabricated from bronze and adorned with 60 individual bronze reliefs. Portraying children and skeletons in the arms of giant trees, the Fountain suggests that from death comes new life. On the ground surrounding the Fountain lies an 1800 square meter mosaic laid in black and white granite. It took Vigeland a great deal of time to establish the monument: from 1906 to 1947

 

Monolith with the Wrought Iron Gates

Awesome fall colors experienced in October in Vigeland Park

The Fountain on a rainy day

This picture was taken from the Monolith Plateau - of "The Fountain" on a rainy day. The backdrop of the fountain against the skyline is simply mesmerizing - be it sun, rain or snow.

Me at the Wheel of Life on a sunny day

A lot of folks exercise around the "Wheel of Life" running all the way up the slope leading to the Wheel and returning back. Some of these are atheletes who train in the natural serene atmosphere of the Vigeland Park for their games. During summer, its not uncommon to find folks having barbeque or sipping beer, reading books and conversing along till it gets dark (which is usually around 11.00 pm)

Caption says "What a Mess?"

 Gustav Vigeland has personally crafted each of these sculptures for years/ decades together and gifted them to the City of Oslo. Amazing feat for a man who was so passionate about his art and dedicated his entire life to it. Vigeland occasionally included some statues that are more abstract, such as the "Man attacked by Genii" statue, which shows an adult male, fighting off a horde of mythological figures.
 
 Seen below is a parting shot of the Vigeland Sculpture Park, where at the end of the park, one can see winding roads leading to other parts of Oslo city and high up in the mountains the Holmenkollen ski'ing slope. Some day will blog on my trip to Holmenkollen too.

Holmenkollen Ski jump

Stats: HisTory!

1.       On Sept 23^rd, exactly 7 days back we had published the first set of statistics for this blog and hoped to cross 1000 pageviews by Sept’30 2010. We have surpassed our initial target! As of 11.06 pm CET, this blog has now got total of 1500 pageviews in the month of September’2010 alone! An amazing feat, considering the fact that the pageviews before September were only 28!

2.       See the split of people visiting this blog from various parts of the world. US of course tops the chart, followed by India, Norway and UK. I have also already turned off "Don't track my page views" so the Norway numbers are from elsewhere!

3.     A lot of feedback received offline – by word of mouth, email, chat and also as comments on the blog and facebook/orkut has been received with an open mind. Thanks a load for that. I will focus on the suggested improvement areas and thanks for branding my writing as “creative writing”. Hope I am able to raise the bar to your expectations and do well!

4.       Year 2010 has been a significant year for this blog, as we had the maximum no. of blogs (22 so far and counting) posted ever in the five years this blog has been online and the highest ever in a single month (Sept 2010 where there are 21 blogs including this one).

5.       Blog “Tribute to the Dell Inspiron 5150: My first laptop” is now having 87 clicks after just 3 days of being posted. This is one of the fastest blogs to touch the three figure mark!

6.   Through this blog, am able to moor my thoughts and energies onto something i wanted to do for so long and in a way helping me look beyond the loneliness that depresses one in this part of the world. Kudos to blogger.com!

The parallel life with Rajnikanth

This blog is a recap of the way my life has turned in the past few years, synchronizing with the year when Rajnikanth had his major films released.

1999: Padayappa

The days I kept 'Padi' (meaning 'step' in tamil) on my nascent engineering career, relying on my 'Appa’s' support ( I was on a paid seat in engineering so thanks to my Dad ( in tamil called Appa) and family support!)

This movie was released in 1999 where Rajni is shown as a self righteous good man who looses all the family fortune to his relatives and then comes up the hard way and becomes rich and famous. Those who were foe’s earlier now turn friends barring 'Neelambari' the awesome role played by Ramya Krishnan. I haven’t seen this movie before 2002 but had heard rave reviews about this movie. My folks and family members were all gaga over it when it was released and they saw it in during their trip to South India.

During this time, I had just completed over a year in my engineering college and was also the year my sister got married. Indeed a period where I took sometime to come in terms with not having my sister as a day to day part of my life. The first two years of engineering from 1998-2000 were indeed fun, where the focus was less on academics and more on whiling away your time doing nothing. My mom had to literally coerce me and say "Padi..Appa"! (which is like pleading in colloquial Tamil saying "Son - i request pls study"!)

2002: Baba

The days of struggle

The film's story is about a carefree young atheist, Baba, who is a reincarnation of a failed saint from the Himalayas. After several twists and problems caused by corrupt local politicians, Baba is taken to Mahavatar Babaji, whom Baba was a follower of in his last life. Baba gets tested by the deity and is given seven chances of wishes; the test is that if he uses any one of the wishes for his own personal desires, he would have to take many more births for him to get rid of the karma.

Though this film did not ring the bells in the box office, I still fell for this movie. I graduated out of engineering in June 2002. All my friends were working in atleast some organization where they were doing either a software / networking job - like TCS, Tara Infotech, Mastek, Patni etc. This was the most challenging period of my life now when I look back, as I did not have a job. I was recruited for a BPO job at Wipro Spectramind for their AOL Process through an off campus process.  I  attended the induction from Mr. Raman Roy and worked for 2-3 days at their office in Powai. It is indeed strange that in the first place, I was the same person who coerced my Engineering batch mates to take up BPO jobs after my first day in Spectramind and in a weeks time sent them a long email justifying why they should not take up a BPO job. There are no hard feelings  to folks who work in the BPO industry, but its just that as an Engineer, you cant be in BPO at the ground level - getting your accents rite and being as friendly as you can, to irate customers. In three working days I realized that this is not my cup of tea and gave back  Wipro Spectramind the opportunity I was given to work for them. Thanks but no thanks. Rajnikanth also had returned money to producers who lost money due to Baba as it did not do well.

And while I was there sitting jobless at home from June 2002 - Sept 2002, I was at the lowest ebbs of my career and personal life. These were the days when i was applying jobs - right,left and center. I used to go to walk-ins armed with a bag of resumes though many were of no use for my candidature. The Times of India "Ascent" section and other job sections in newspapers were read with interest, disappointments and suspicion like never before. I happened to also go along with other jobless colleagues of mine to companies all over Mumbai - submitting our resumes. Most of the times we were "shooed" away by the watchman himself - who was like a pseudo HR - asking for our college, marks and resume. At times he also had a smart comment on our marks saying if they were good, bad or worse to fit the grade in his organization. The times between this helter-skelter running in Andheri MIDC, Vashi and host of other places were spent in either peeling and gobbling banana's in the 5 minutes that we wanted to spend on unproductive work like eating food or sipping chai's to rejuvenate our mind for the next level of disappointments.

Not only was I sitting at home doing nothing (though i was looking out for jobs), but also had a break off then, which was a shock. I watched Baba during those days of struggle and got mesmerized by the entire theory of meditation. I researched further on the internet on Paramguru Mahavatar Babaji and was impressed and astonished. Adding to my trips to the temple and chanting mantra’s to seek mental solace from the restlessness caused by 'friends going for jobs, but I am jobless at home post graduation' syndrome , began my tryst with meditation. It just happened to come from within me. One of the theme songs of Baba was also soothing to do the meditation and channelize my energies to gain positivity and polarize the nature to help me find a job. There was also another meditation CD of Master La Del Pie shared by my friend Ankush , which I used sporadically. Over a period of these 2-3 months starting June’2002 I managed to get into total peace of mind and meditation for periods ranging from 30 mins - 1 hour three times a day.

And then the unsaid or miracle happened. I had applied innocently to all companies my web browser’s links could take me to - some aspirational and some out of sheer desperation. Applied to Infosys, Wipro and host of other companies, though I knew that there were better graduates with better % than myself. But as my friend Vishal says 'Hope is everlasting'. Then one day while chatting to a friend of mine and scrolling my mouse for deleting the 'SPAM' folder of my yahoo mailbox (gmail was not used then), I saw the invitation for an entrance test from Infosys. I was excited, shocked, pleased and nervous - all at the same time!  Over the days prepared for the same and gave the test in VT - in a college downtown. Was glad to see so many more candidates coming for the mock test  - happy in one way that I was not the only one who was jobless - sad in one way that there definitely were better people than me!  Miraculously scraped through the aptitude test and was shortlisted for interview. Indeed a breakthrough achievement  - given the fact that I was poor in all the aptitude tests that I had given while in college. The next big leap was the interview where we knew that Infosys had a tendency to ask puzzles in the interview. So there were the days when I poured into Shakuntaladevi and other books out of pressure than choice and simultaneously preparing for mock interviews. I used to talk to myself for hours together in front of the mirror practicing my facial expressions, body language to show more optimism. I also gave some mock interviews by having my mom and dad pose as interviewers and armed them with a list of questions ready to ask me. I practiced my responses to the standard questions and also asked them to ask me some out of the box questions (the stress interviews) for which I had to hold my nerve and yet give a sensible answer. Used to unwind at various intervals of the day listening to songs beyond those from Tamil Movie Baba - 'Chand Taare Tode Laaon' from Hindi Movie Yes Boss and 'Chale Chalo' from Hindi Movie Lagaan to keep myself motivated. Miraculously also scraped through the interview and got a job! I was informed on Sept 5^th of my job in Infosys and that I had to join on Sept 30^th in Bangalore! Just a day after a shocking but messy breakup!

Boy o Boy, as I write this blog, today is September 30^th, 2010, exactly 8 years later and it is still so fresh in my minds as if all of this happened just yesterday! I don’t think I would have cracked Infosys without the meditational discipline and sense of personal power that I felt those days of struggle praying to all gods I could and Babaji - who I was introduced in a strange way by Rajnikanth through his movie. Here is one salute to Rajni Sir!

2005: Chandramukhi

The year of "going through the grind"

When this movie released, I was in US and saw the movie by getting a DVD from the Indian shop in Middletown, Connecticut. Nice movie with good songs. These were definitely the days I was aspiring to do MBA and getting slowly fed up with my day job doing mundane IT tasks.

2007: Sivaji

The year of 'redemption'

After five years of efforts, perseverance and interest to do MBA. Got an admit in an MBA school - SPJIMR. To watch this movie, me and my friend Deepak R eagerly awaited for a screening in Connecticut and drove down 30 miles one way to watch the movie to a packed house and a ticket costing USD 15. Awesome experience! My first time watching a Rajnikanth movie in a theater and the crowd was ballistic. They didn’t think twice to come in front of the theater and start bursting into a dance with screams and a shower of loose change upon seeing Rajnikanth sing songs, woo Shreya Saran or fight the villains. Loved the movie and the songs and more importantly 'Thalaivar' (fondly means "Chief" in Tamil) being forever young at heart, mind and soul.

2010: Enthiran

The year of turning '30'

Rajni Sir, turned 30 this year. I felt crazy, sad and bad that I am becoming an 'oldie', an 'uncle' at such a young age. I still remember the first time I fell down a bicycle or the times I was driven to school by my father. I still remember the mad rush to get seat in an engineering college and the struggle after that to get a job. Why does life go so fast? Why does my hair grey so quickly? Then I realized after seeing your interviews and off screen presence over the years (when you are not acting). You are simple, light hearted, good natured , have self deprecating humor and are totally at ease with yourself. It doesn’t matter what happens to your body or age as long as your spirit is motivated to stay young. You have constantly been reinventing yourself from being a simple village lad in Annamalai/ Muthu to a scientist cum Robot in Enthiran to suit the audience tastes and also personally challenging yourself. You taught me that. It is not great feeling that 'Enthiran' is releasing tomorrow and I can’t watch the movie even if I want to in Stavanger. We don’t have any screenings here Rajni Sir. Wish I was in US / India to watch it first day first show. I am sure the movie would be a big hit.

As you have seen multiple transformations in your roles from being 'Muthu', 'Annamalai', 'Padayappa', 'Baba', 'Sivaji' to 'Enthiran' hope I see similar transformations in my life from being 'Adolescent scientist', 'Engineer', 'MBA' to a 'Writer' and 'Motivational Speaker' who is a successful sales guy at the backdrop of good health and happy family life.

The right time to be an Indian

India can now qualify to be a Senior Citizen (a person who has crossed roughly 60 years of age), being on its own for over 60 years after having gained independence from the British Raj in 1947. The battle that was fought over decades with the British and other colonizers like the French and Portuguese is now a memory of the past. It is something that comes up only sporadically when one reads a History textbook or comes across during the Republic day, Independence day or while surfing television  channels.

From the time we have gained independence, it has been an exciting journey for the country to start walking as a toddler, stumble across the license raj, political instability and finally take mature steps towards industrialization and opening up of the economy in 1990’s with a stable government at the helm of affairs. This era of liberalization that current Prime Minster Dr. Manmohan Singh (he was the finance minister then) and Mr. P. V Narasimha Rao  (he was the Prime Minister then) created, opened up an ocean of opportunities that continue to flood India across various sectors like IT, Telecom, Manufacturing, Automobiles, Aeroplans, Consumer Goods even today. This has definitely contributed in immeasurable ways to the growing confidence and self reliance of Indians on their own skills, hardwork, talent and entrepreneurial skills. We as a nation have hence overcome the self-doubts created by the colonial mindset unknowingly inherited from the British. 

As I write this, the generation I belong to (age group between the 20’s and 35’s) is indeed fortunate to have the right platform to showcase our talent in this ocean of opportunities. Gone are the days when a job in a public sector company – like a Reserve Bank of India, Nuclear Power Corporation or Government was your license to retiring young and stay complacent.  The today’s youth works in the swankiest of the organizations with air conditioners, Computers, Mobile phones and other perks like travel through aero planes to India and abroad than trains. He switches jobs faster, gets unhappy very soon has low patience levels to wait and watch. He wants to be in the midst of the action – to do, to drive and not to be driven around. He is in a period of time when the entire world is waking up and excited about the “India Story” and respects and looks at Indians in a different way than before. The acceptance from the West is indeed reassuring for the easterner, who reciprocates the feeling by being as Westernized as he can.  He eats Pizza, has an IPod, plays his Wii, has an IBM Thinkpad and can get the latest of American / European brands in the nearest mall. If one is in the Information Technology (IT) industry, the perks get even better with an opportunity to travel to the Western World and enrich your personal and professional life. The global Indian (GI) gets to visit places that he dreamt of – Niagara Falls, Florida, Las Vegas, Big Behn, Florence, Rome, Switzerland during his journey of serving the Western World with their technology needs. And the GI works with customers or makes friends in Western World, he starts feeling more wanted because of this “Wow” factor that the world has for India. The GI saves most of his money in the foreign currency and repatriates it back home to India – which not only adds upto India’s Forex reserves, but also at times becomes the reason for sudden demand driven hike that leads to increase in real estate prices, inflation, gold prices etc. 

The GI is indeed doing what the colonials did to India centuries ago – plundered the wealth of the foreign land he is in and repatriating it back home. The only difference being the GI is being a soldier without a sword and is not interested in gaining territories demarcated by physical boundaries. He is conquering his new horizons (markets / customers)  by using a combination of the most intangibly significant inheritance from the British – English, intelligence and hard work. In return for conquering these horizons, he is providing services and enabling business in these horizons to transform themselves to the next level.  If the colonial rulers plundered India of her wealth and in return gave bloodshed – this is exactly the opposite where you transform businesses and communities across the globe.  This is GI’s and India’s soft power. The empires of the companies for which GI works are built across countries not by coup or force, but through business interests and focus to conquer unchartered territories.  And in this journey to conquer the unconquered, the GI spreads India’s soft power.

Though in these times of a slow global recovery, there exist protectionist measures in different markets where governments are being socialistic in the name of capitalism – in the long run it would be difficult for the pseudo socialists to ignore the contribution by India and its sons and daughters in enhancing the competitiveness of their nations.  

From the days of India being branded as the land of “farmers and snake charmers”, this is indeed a moment of pride to celebrate, treasure and spread further the message that “This is the right time to be an Indian”.

Germany: Koln and Bonn

A local bus seen on the taxi ride from Bonn to St. Aug

Travelling to new locations is an experience that we seek for pleasure and for business. During one of these trips in 2010, when I was traveling a hell lot in the first six months of the year, I got a chance to visit Germany for a business trip.  It was indeed a marathon trip, where I had to fly from Oslo – Germany -  UK – Oslo in a span of four days. The first two days, had to spend time in Germany for a Business Meeting. Took a  flight from Oslo, Norway to Dusseldorf in Germany.  From Dusseldorf me and my manager took a local train to Koln. One of the harrowing experiences was – everything was in German and the ATM Ticket vending machine for the train journey won’t budge if we did not have cash. Credit Cards for some reason were not accepted. Luckily my colleague had some Euro’s that were perhaps saved for a rainy day and we were able to get tickets and board the train.

Once in Koln, we took the Taxi to our Hotel. While on the taxi, saw some really long German buses, a host of different architecture and way of life, Lindt Factory and other interesting sights.

Lindt Chocolate Factory

Hotel Hangelar, St Augustin

St. Augustin Church

Deserted Main Street of St. Augustin

We wanted a hotel in Koln / Bonn but there were very few hotels in these places and were fully booked – thanks to the summer. So we booked a hotel in a quiet town called “Sankt Augustin” which was at a distance of 8-10 kms from both Koln and Bonn.  We stayed a couple of nights in Sankt Augustin and had overnight internal preparatory meetings and the actual business meeting  (for which we had to travel to some other place) the next day. The town of Sankt Augustin is a small quiet town somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Though not that far from Koln and Bonn, it usually has tourists who come on a religions pilgrimage to Koln, Bonn and other areas. The day we arrived, we checked into a hotel and then  walked down to the main street to find a place for dinner. The streets were totally deserted, though it was hardly 6 pm and we saw a Church (L shaped) and quiet streets with bilboard signs in German. We soon had a quiet Pizza place where they spoke decent English and had a beer and pizza and retired back early to bed for a hectic day of business meetings next day.

At Bonn Square

The next day, after the meeting was finished,  we travelled back to the hotel Hangelar where we stayed and the others who had flown in for the meeting left their own ways. I and another colleague of mine then decided that now that we are done with business, it was time for pleasure. We decided to meet at Bonn Square in the evening to walk around Bonn. Bonn as a city has a lot of historical significance and was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990.

The Bonn Square was very picturesque and had the typical European touch of cobblerstone footpaths (which i have begun to enjoy and cherish so much!) with scenic buildings with sloping roofs giving a feel of the "old world"  with comforts of the new world.  Bonn is also the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven - better known as Beethoven, the German pianist and composer.

From the Bonn Square, we walked around and saw the "University of Bonn", "Born Minster", Sterntor (star gate), Beethovenhalle (birth place of Beethoven). The town is a strange concoction of history and modern lifestyle. Most of the American Brands like Pizza Hut, Mac D's etc have a shop at the center.

The Bonn Minster is one of Germany's oldest churches having been built between the 11th and 13th centuries. At one point the church served as the cathedral for the Archbishopric of Cologne

Bonn Minster

University of Bonn

  

The Sterntor is a reconstruction of a gate of the medieval city wall

Sterntor (star gate)

American brands have invaded Bonn!

River Rhine

River Rhine with wonderful skyline of trees and churches

At the birth place of Beethoven

Indian Restaurant in Bonn

It took us sometime to walk around the city, enjoying the weather and the new surroundings. On the way to the riverside where the Rhine flowed, we had "Crepe" - a common street food item ( a la Vada Pav/ Double Roti / Sada Dosa in Indian term) in Europe. It was a long walk to the Rhine, but enjoyable. From there we walked parallel to the river toward Beethovanhalle. Finally exhausted after a long day at work and now walking around Bonn, we decided to have food and luckily found an Indian restaurant just overlooking the Rhine. Had loads of food to keep ourselves stocked and make up for the compromised lunch in the morning.

Sculptures depicting the heads of Saints Cassius & Florentius in front of the Bonn Minster.

Life @ 80 mph in AutoBahn

                                                                       In this trip i not only saw these exciting places as mentioned above, but also had a chance to travel through the "Autobahn".It is another name for a highway (like the NH in India) or Interstates (like the I90/ I91 highways). In fact, for highways in Austria, Germany and Switzerland the word Autobahn is used.The advisory speed limit of the German autobahn is 130 km/h (80 mph) and i could literally experience the same as depicted in the snaps! It reminded so much of the US interstate highways in terms of nature of the road, the scenery that flies by as you speed up to your destination and also the way the "Exits" are laid out. The first section of Autobahn was created between Koln and Bonn - the section that i travelled in. It was indeed an enjoyable experience to be driven around so fast on world class highways. After indeed a long day, finally decided to call it quits. Took a cab back to Sankt Augustin to my hotel from Bonn and slept the night out, before leaving early the next morning to UK.

A typical fountain

Bonn Minster

Life on the fast lane

The classic tourists nightmare. Where to go?