Sydney Stories - Week 98

Hello,

It is a rather odd time for me to write the Sydney Story at 8 AM on Sunday morning - but if I don't do it now I will never get a chance again. So here it comes...

The past few weeks post PR has been quite interesting. Amongst other things I was able to buy a cell phone on post paid connection. Got a Samsung Galaxy - SII,  supposedly the latest in Androids. The first week of of SII was quite intimidating. On the positive side, of course there are many many cool features. I am finally now into the "app" scene and don't feel left out at work when people discuss - Oh I have THAT app to do THIS. The best feature that is unique to Samsung compared to many other phones including the Iphone is the SWYPE technology. SWYPE is where you don't have to punch the letters on the phone, you just slide your finger around the letters you need to type. It has "intelligence" built to figure out the right word even if you made some rather vague swipes. The best part is when I swipe my last name it suggests both "Natarajan" and "Natarajhan". Wonder where it picked it up from!! Nandhitha and I are now officially fans of the "Angry Bird". In fact Nandhitha taught me a few tricks (which she has learnt playing on my friend's phones in the past). It is sooo addictive that it has made a serious impact to my reading habit in the train. On the negative side, one most annoying thing is not being able to close an application easily. Until I learnt a few tricks I had so many applications running which obviously drains out the battery pretty quickly. 

Last week we had a visitor from Salem. An exporter who started life from a pretty low point and kept growing up. He doesn't speak English - can read slowly adding one alphabet after the other. He is out here down under all alone doing "market study" of what sells in this country. Apparently he can export pretty much anything from India and he does a lot of business in Malaysia so far. With a few contacts here and there he managed to spend a few weeks here in Melbourne and Sydney going around Indian shops. In Sydney I took him around a few suburbs which has a decent Indian population. He immediately "made friends" with one of the store owners where he spent a lot of time understanding the business here. Truly enterprising!!!

Here's the grand finale for this week. We had a bowling championship as part of the sports club we are part of. Uma and I were on the same team and I was the "captain" of the team as well. My first memory of bowling goes back to Genting Highlands - back in '89. Still remember rolling a ball that I could not even lift. After that I've had a lot of opportunities in Bangalore and in US. Haven't had many chances after we came to Australia. Am pretty sure the committee wanted to encourage "new comers" and hence made me a captain because nobody has ever seen me bowl. In the past I remember averaging about 80 points. Yesterday I averaged at 110 in 3 games. By my standards - not bad at all. :-)  Guess what - our team came runners up against 12 other teams. We were in fact leading the pack in every round by a good margin. In the final round some of our key strikers got exhausted. Nevertheless it was good team work where everybody pitched in to keep the scores at a steady rate. It was quite a close competition in the finals across 3 teams with score differences in single digits. Had dinner at 1 AM at a Pakistani/Indian restaurant in Granville. Apparently they are open till 2 AM every day. Very unique by Sydney standards.

Oki doki. Have a good rest of the weekend and have a great week ahead.

C

Misson Accomplished @ Down Under

Last week marks a very important milestone. 14th of November 2011 - the day we were granted our permanent residency in this country. I have written enough about the woes of not being a permanent resident in Australia. Right from the atrocities of not being able to get proper health care to getting a simple driving licence. Now all of that has become a matter of the past. The relief this brings - one has to experience life as a 457 (temporary work visa holder) before being a permanent resident. Coming directly as a PR - one misses out on all the "fun".

It was a long drawn process as well. As with anything every step of this process had its own hurdles. All the way till the end when the case officer fell sick and had to be transferred to another person. The "thought to reality" took about 2 years to complete. Actual "work" started sometime in May and fortunately got this done just in time before Nandhitha goes to school next January. As much there were hurdles there were many people  who played their part in making this happen as well. THANKS to all of them.

Now I am a "consultant" for one of my friends here who is also going through this same nightmare. I hope he does not repeat the same mistakes I made. :-) Life is much different with a new sense of "freedom" in many many ways. 

Went to the Helensburgh temple for "Thanksgiving". I was explaining the various gods and their vehicle of choice. Vishnu - Garudan, Siva - Nandhi, Pillaiyar (Ganesh) - ????? Anybody any clues? What is Ganesh's mouse's name? Of course with this question not answered she didn't bother to go to Murugan's Mayil's name. I told her I will get back to her - am yet to find an answer. I see some references to "Mushika" is that the one?

Alrighty...have a great week ahead.

For those in the US of A - Have a Happy Turkey Day!!

C

Sydney Updates

Hello,

It's been a while since I could sit down and write about the happenings. Not that nothing happened...way too much happened. Things that I could write about and things that I couldn't as well. It's all good though...

Let me start with a recent visit to a "hairdresser" - note this is no barber shop. This weekend had to get a "hairdo" done before I left on my trip. I couldn't make time to visit my usual one (Chinese/Vietenamese ??)in Parramatta.  Ended up at an Italian place close to home. I think I've seen this in some movie before, but the hair dresser's place seem to be some sort of rejuvenation spot for people. There was this lady who seemed to be pouring her heart out to her hair stylist. Couldn't quite catch the conversation but her facial expressions were quite animated that she would be going out with reduced hair and stress. The guy who "worked" on me was quite good too. He made some "calculated" judgement of what size I should trim my hair to. Of course he started striking a convesation with me. I think the standard is with "Where do you live" and goes on to "What do you do for work?". By then he strikes some common thread to extend the conversation. This experience is different from the Chinese guy. He does the job without a word except for a "looking sumaart eh" at the end.

Nandhitha is dressing up as Mother Teresa for her Tamil school annual day. We did as much as possible to re-create a "Missionaries of Charity" costume with a dhoti with 3 blue stripes at the end. Her dialogue is "மற்றவர்களுக்காக வாழாத வாழ்கை வாழ்கையே அல்ல" (A life not lived for others is not a life). She seems quite confident with the words. Got to see how it goes at the function. Must appreciate her tamil teacher. She has put in a lot of effort training these pre-schoolers. After Vivekananda set the stage with "Arise and Awake..." now it is Mother Teresa. ;-) Wonder how I still remember some traces of that. I think I even remember the toy that I got as the prize.

Emirates - my first experience with them this time. AMAZING is the word. My loyalty towards Singapore airlines is now being questioned - big time. I flew a Boeing 777-300ER (ER = Extended Range). This bird is supposed to fly long hauls upto 14594 Kms. Their inflight touch screen entertainment system is state-of-the-art. It even has a front and bottom camera. Supposedly we can see exactly what the pilot sees and don't have to worry if you did not get a window seat. I didn't see this in Airbus 380. Of course the moment it takes off it is nothing but a grey screen. ;-) The interior deco is quite cool. Very pleasing seat colours and patterns. The best part was the ceiling that lit up after the lights went off. There were scattered white lights attempting to give a feel of a starry night cloud. The flight from Sydney to Dubai was quite empty. I had my entire 3-seat row for myself to stretch.

The restroom in the flight was quite unique. It had different warning messages in different languages in various places. Too different eh!! It was!! For instance the instruction to wipe the toilet seat was in Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi (seemed like it), Kannada (or Telugu) and probably some other script (Chinese / Japanese). However not in English. The sign for not smoking was in English, Arabic etc and had Russian which was not found anywhere else. Almost seemed to target specific customers from specific origins. The complimentary toileteries was also given in a very decent bag. 

Listened to Vivaldi 4 Seasons after a long long time. A good start for a 14 hour+ long journey. Watched Dhobi Ghat - something that was in my "To See" list for a long time. A very different movie of course. Even though it seemed to end with some logical conclusion leaves it open for interpretation big time. 

That's all for now. To continue later after I manage to kill the remaining 6 hours in Dubai airport.

Have A Great Weekend!!

C

Life of Pi - A Book Review

After a bout of non-fiction books finally laid eyes on Fiction. Here's a story about a story about a story. I circled around this book several times contemplating, re-contemplating over and over. Somehow some of the elements of the book did not sound quite compelling to pick up at the first instance. The word (??) Pi was the first distraction. Do I really want to read a book about 22/7?? Of course on reviewing the cover it sounded something else. It was then about a boy stranded in the ocean with a bunch of animals. Not really an animals guy. So it took at least 3 attempts to get to start reading this.

The rest is of course "Pi Story". The story line is simple - a boy gets marooned on a life boat with a bunch of animals in the middle of the pacific ocean. What happens before and after that is what makes the Life of Pi.

This book is unique in many ways. In spite of the fact that this is an out and out fiction with some story line taken from some other Mexican novel, the author gives a feel of almost an autobiography. If I did not read about the author it would've been hard to believe that this was written by a Canadian. It simply reflects a typical South Indian life with a good play of English. The part that impressed me most was the reference to "Arun Ice Cream". It just took me back to the days. Guess that really shows the amount of research the author had put in to understand the culture of the land.

Of course as I proceed further I realize that this book is not for everybody. Especially not for those who are vegetarian at heart (not necessarily by diet). So you are sufficiently warned!! It has a very funny ending. The humour and writing style is just - different. I would rather not reveal the suspense.

2 people I spoke about this have already started reading and 1 has also finished it. Reviews have been quite positive so far.

Happy Reading
C

First Australian Road Trip

Hello,

Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was fabulous with a fairly quiet ending.

This weekend we celebrated the Labour Day in Australia well...in New South Wales. Labour Day is celebrated on different days in different states in Australia. In NSW it was celebrated this weekend. I am not sure if I should call it a coincidence to have it as the day after the National Rugby League ( NRL) Grand Finals.  Am sure a day off would help who had a beer or 2 to recuperate.

So...being a long weekend some of our friends planned to get on a short road trip to Canberra - the Capital city. We were 13 people (including 3 kids) in 3 cars. This happens to be our first Australian road trip. Road trip considering the fact we drove and stayed in some place. Have done longer drives, but they were more of day trips. Anyways....we set sail from Westmead at around 8 AM. Enroute we stopped at a Macca's (Mc'donald's) for breakfast at a village called Picton. From the freeway we saw signs for "food" and took the exit. Only then did we realize it was a 10 km deviation from the freeway. It seemed like an all Aussie village. I guess they might not have seen so many Indians at the same time.

From Picton our next stop was at Bowral. There was a tulip festival going on with approximately 100k tulips. There were some interesting colour combinations of tulips. The best that caught my eye was a simple light pink tulip. That is were the most dreaded thing happened - our camera battery went out of power and I knew I had left the charger at home. So if you are wondering why you are not seeing any photos here - this is the reason. Our first Aussie road trip sans the camera. It was such a bummer. Guess we will have to repeat the same trip again some other time. Hopefully I will have a good camera as well by then.

The next stop was at a rest / picnic area somewhere along the way. We had taken "kattu saadham" - typical south indian "picnic food" for lunch. Bisi Belebath, Cauliflower and Carrot poriyals (stir fried veggies) & Curd Rice. There was even Mysore Pak imported from India. It was a different experience having a picnic under a 10 deg C weather with decent wind factor as well (hence the bisi). After the re-fuelling session our next stop was at the Australian War Memorial. It was a nice museum I suppose with collections from the various wars that the Aussies participated. As I mentioned in an earlier story,  none of the wars were fought to either safe guard Australia or to avenge someone who hurt the Aussies. It was all to support the Queen Mother or Big Uncle Sam. But they did seem to have gone around the world for others. The view from the memorial was pretty good with the Aussie Parli (ament) at the other end.

After watching the closing down ceremony, we headed towards our cabin. It was more of an urban campsite. It was a cross between a campsite, an RV park and a motel. We had booked 2 cabins for our gang. After a bit of settling down we left for the night show at Floriade. That was the key highlight (supposedly) of the trip. Had a tough time finding a parking spot - was almost about to get my car into the water. The weather was so cold for us to enjoy the time there. We were prepared for the cold but probably not prepared enough. The kids were beginning to get quite uncomfortable and it was almost time to wrap up. Had whatever that was available and edible for dinner.

The next morning started with an in-situ breakfast in the cabins with scrambled eggs (mushrooms for the veggies) and toast.  We started with a visit to the Parliament house. It wasn't a huge structure compared to White House or for that matter our own Parliament. Not even as grand as Vidhana Soudha from the outside. Again, the view back from the Parliament house to the Memorial was nice. Being the first Parliament house I've ever been to not able to compare to anything else on the interiors. After the sights, had our lunch in the cafe there. Pretty good stuff for a parliament canteen. 

From the Parliament house we headed towards the Telstra towers. It have us a nice 360 degree view of Canberra from the viewing tower. We saw the storm coming from afar and before we could get out to our cars we had to get drenched. Time was running short as we had one last stop before we could head home. It was the miniature garden where they had replicas of some of world's monuments. For India, it was the Red Fort. Guess the red colour had washed way in the rain because it looked quite brown. Did a few rounds on the mini train. That's where I learnt "Chuga Chuga choo choo...chuga chuga choo choo Train Coming Through" from Nandhitha.

Headed back to Sydney with a pit stop at Goulburn at some "historic" cafe. This trip was quite memorable. Going on a road trip with 2 young ones can be quite "interesting" just by itself. Thankfully we went with a group of people who lent a helping hand many a times. It had all the expected routines of throwing up and cleaning up. We are now masters of handling those situations. After a long time listened to Tamil songs while driving. Nandhitha was co-ordinating a "dance show" where we had to dance seated in the car. Whenever a female voice sings it her turn to dance and if it is male then it is mine. At times she got confused when there was just music playing. We had a grand finale to the trip with a great dinner at Sri Annapurna - Liverpool.  After a looong time had parotta kurma - South Indian style (the veggie version).  Thanks to our trip "Manager" Gayathri for organizing this. :-)

Have A Great Week

C

Tipping Point - A Book Review

Yet another interesting insight from Malcolm Gladwell. This book talks about what it takes for ideas to click to  create epidemics  - positive or negative. It all begins with the "message" and he talks about different kinds of people - the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.

Talking about the message his key point is about the "stickiness" of the message. The concept where a message does not goes through one ear and goes out via the other. He says the message should stick "you can't get it out of your head" for it to be effective.  Connectors are those who can take that sticky message out to the world using their multitude of connections. I guess the Facebooks and LinkedIns are popular purely because of this concept. Mavens are those who are truly passionate about the message that is being passed on. Salesmen are those who can be very persuasive about spreading the message. Talking about persuasion he stresses quite a bit on the "non-verbal" messages that accompany a message for it reach the intended audience.

One of the most interesting concepts I found was the Power of Context. "Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context. The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment.". He narrates a study where an experiment was conducted on a group of seminaries to test their "character". Not all of them demonstrated the behaviour of a "Good Samaritan" when forced to be in slightly different conditions. He says "....the convictions of the heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behaviour."

He talks about a "Social Channel Capacity" where he says that at any point one can be "close" to only 10-15 people. Any "network" beyond that he claims will be an overload. He says "To be someone's best friend requires a minimum investment of time. More than that it takes emotional energy. Caring about someone deeply is exhausting." A very strong statement I guess!!

There is something called "Transactional Memory".  "Not everything that we remember is actually stored inside our brains." The book says when people know each other so well, they create an implicit "joint memory system" -  a transactive memory system - which is based on an understanding of who is best suited to remember what kind of things. I suppose this is true of any kind of relationship - personal or business.

So...concepts like the above definitely gives an interesting view point on many things that are required to Tip a message.

Happy Reading!!

C

Sydney Stories - Week 88

Hello,

Back again after a while. Last few weeks has been crazy to put it lightly. Got some catch up time this weekend finally.

Spring is in and with it,  brings all the minor inconveniences to health. The GP took some consideration on us and even gave a buy-2-get-1 free offer on consultation charges when he came to know that we don't have medicare. Weather of course is turning to be great. Got to resume the outdoor activities.

These days my  Saturday morning routine is to play a Pokemon Monopoly game with Nandhitha. We have to wait till Nandha goes to sleep and then start playing. We usually get one of us bankrupt in about 30 minutes. From that point on Nandhitha makes up her own rules to play without any money. I end up setting some pre-expectations on the number of variations we are going to play for the day. If I don't we can go the entire morning on Monopoly.

Roger Federer is in town and I didn't get a chance to say hello. What a pity!! ;-) He's here for a Davis cup match between Swiss and the Aussies. Apparently he beat Tomic today.

Am now part of a committee for organizing the Christmas party at my client's office. Yes, that's a pretty serious affair. Many venues have already been booked out for the premium dates - usually Friday nights beginning 2nd-3rd week of November till mid December. It is very interesting to hear viewpoints on what people want to do or not do in an office party.

"Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell is coming along well. One "concept" that stood out recently was about the fact - Character is contextual. It says that anybody is Good or Bad purely based on the situation (context) they are in at that point. More about this once I am done with the book.

Have A Great Week.

C

Principle Centered Leadership - A Book Review

I believe there is a trilogy of leadership books from the Covey family. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Speed of Trust and Principle Centered Leadership - each citing excerpts from the other with 7 Habits being the core. Of course there are other books from them which again must be derived from these 3.

Principle Centered Leadership is more of a collection of essays written by a few people. As in any book there are a few sections that I just skimmed through, but there were a few which stands out as something each person who has been or intending to be responsible for 1 or more person other than themselves. Have noted below a few sections which I found to be the most interesting.

Characteristics of Principle Centered Leaders

1. Continually learning.
2. Service Oriented
3. Radiate Positive Energy
4. Believe in Other People
5. Lead Balanced Lives
6. See Life as an Adventure
7. Synergistic
8. Exercise Self-Renewal

Am sure there will be one or more areas that we would want to improve on the above.

A principle - "Possessing precedes giving". A simple thought...but at times we tend to forget. We try to give without even possessing and get into trouble. :-)

"There are times to teach and train and times not to teach. When relationships are strained and charged with emotion, attempts to teach or train are often perceived as a form of judgement and rejection. "

Three Types of Power

• Coercive Power - Power created by fear utilizing power, authority etc.
• Utility Power - Power created by a particular utility / purpose (because of the benefits that could be derived from the leader)
• Legitimate Power - Knowledgeable, Wholehearted, Uninhibited Commitment. He clearly distinguishes that this is not blind faith, mindless obedience or robotic servitude. "Whatever they (leaders) did they did because they believed in us, and we reciprocate with respect, loyalty, commitment, and a willingness to follow, almost without condition or restriction.

"You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again.

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn"

Power Tools

• Persuasion
• Patience
• Gentleness
• Teachableness - Operating with the assumption that you do not have all the answers, all the insights and valuing different viewpoints, judgement and experiences followers may have.
• Acceptance - withholding judgement
• Kindness
• Openness
• Compassionate Confrontation
• Consistency
• Integrity

Three Big Mistakes

1. Advise before understand
2. Attempt to build/rebuild relationships without changing conduct or attitude.
3. Assume that good example and relationship are sufficient

"Just as vision without love contains no motivation, so also love without vision contains no goals, no guidelines, no standards, (and hence) no lifting power ."

Approach to Problem Solving

1. Where are we?
2. Where do we want to go?
3. How do we get there?
4. How will we know we have arrived?

I wonder how many times we have asked ourselves these questions!!!

Manager's Attitude - "Where are we going?" or "Where do you want to go?" or "What are your goals?"
 - "and how can I help you?"

Principles of Win-Win Performance (KRA time!!!)

• Specify desired results, but don't supervise methods and means.
• Go heavy on guidelines, light on procedures
• Mention all available resources (within the organization and outside networks)
• Involve people in setting the standards or criteria of acceptable and exceptional performance
• Maintain trust and use discernment, more than so-called objective or quantitative measurements to assess results.
• Reach an understanding of what positive and negative consequences might follow achieving or failing to achieve desired results.
• Make sure the performance agreement is reinforced by organizational structure and systems to stand the test of time.

"Leadership deals with direction - with making sure that the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Management deals with speed. To double one's speed in the wrong direction, however is the very definition of foolishness."

Happy Leading!!

C

Sydney Stories - Week 84(??)

Hello,

Thanks to Janmashtami and Gurgaon taking a day off I could sit down for a few minutes to get to the Sydney Stories. I've lost track of my weeks in Sydney. Should be somewhere around 84. Will go with that even number for now.

After all the ordeal at the Delhi airport with a 5 hour blackout finally made it to my flight to Singapore without too much of a delay. To add to the story I didn't have a printed itinerary in my hand. I must appreciate the customer service desk located in the visitors area at the airport. He very patiently warded off tired customers in their quest to figure out what was happening.

Nevertheless, Delhi airport does look cool gives a good competition to other international airports. The area  on arrival before immigration looks so cool. A decent first impression to first time tourists to India.

Made it back to Sydney after a short stop over in Singapore. Met Mamai and Lavan for a quick get together at an Irish pub. Uma had come to the airport with the kids to pick me up.

Life back in Sydney has been pretty hectic so far. Had to prepare for a presentation I had to submit for the a  conference in Sydney. That will be my first public appearance coming up next week.

=============

A short break of about just 2 weeks happened before I could continue on this. Somewhere between a 4 hour airport power outage, to a 2 hour train to a 30 minute car outage life is still going on in crazy speed. 

The 2 hour train outage was crazy. Some poor woman got killed on the train tracks on the way home (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/train-delays-after-woman-killed-on-tracks/story-e6freuzi-1226122458460). The train I got on kept shuttling between 2 stations so I could either decide to get off or not. Eventually I slept through for about 1.5 hours to wake up at the same station. Finally got a cab and reached home at around 1 AM.

I had my first public appearance earlier this week in Sydney. This was part of a free quarterly conference conducted by the local testing body. It was an interesting experience. It seemed to have went on well. Yet to receive formal feedback. 

Our Vinayagar Chaturthi was interesting too. After a long time we decided to go to the nearby temple to say Happy B'day to Pillaiyar. Uma and kids picked me up from the station. Luck would have it that we had to go back home for something. I was waiting outside with the kids in the car while Uma went home. Just as she was coming back the car wouldn't start. Had to call NRMA (equivalent of AAA in US) to get the batteries replaced. Thankfully I got the membership a few months ago.

The Australian Father's day is this Sunday. There was a Fathers' event happening at Nandhitha's pre-school that the dads (and grand dads) could go and spend time with the kids. I planned for a visit today. At the end of the visit I was gifted with a "surprise" coffee mug designed by Nandhitha.

I guess I shouldn't wait for the weekend to write a post going forward. Weekends have been the busiest time of the week !!!

Have A Great Weekend!!

C

Presentation Tips

It has been a terrific few weeks preparing for the presentation with the grand finale being the last few days in US. It was an interesting experience the last month or so working on this presentation. There were a few lessons learned during this time, that I thought might be of some help - probably just to myself. :-)

1) Begin with a theme. This will be the foundation for your presentation. Make sure your theme will be of interest to your audience. Try to identify a challenge that your audience will be facing currently to form your theme. Establish a reason why they need to be listening to you for the next 1 hour (or so). If you lose your audience here, whatever else you do later in the presentation will be of little or no use.

2) Build a story line around your theme. Start with a challenge / problem that would be relevant to the audience and go about solving them with a coherent and logical flow. 

3) Do not have your entire script on your presentation. Keep it crisp. We have an habit of pouring our mind in PPT as if it is some legal document. NO. A PPT file is just that - a PPT file supposed to help you and your audience to stay in course with the story. Not to be used as reading material.

4) Remove bullets as much as possible. Bullets are for documents - not for presentations. Have more meaningful images instead. Try not to have more 3-4 points in a single slide. This will help maintain their attention throughout. Cluttered information will easily put people to sleep.

5) Use animations effectively. Got to watch out for those unwanted and out of order boxes appearing out of no where.

6) Rehearse the script. Especially if you are co-presenting, co-ordinate transition points with your co-presenter.

7) Know the geography of where you are presenting. Do sufficient research on which room you are going to be presenting. Make sure it has all the infrastructure necessary. The last thing you want is a room with no projector and you have exotic animations all through your presentation.Have your backup or Plan B available if in case you do not have the expected infrastucture.

8) Time your presentation. Prepare cue cards in advance to notify you of available time. Be prepared to adapt your presentation when you don't have sufficient time.

9) Have Fun!! A presentation will be more effective if you can be casual and collected.

Enjoy...

Trip to India - USA - July-August 2011 - Part 2

This last week has been the most craziest week in a long long time. Starting the day in Australian time zone and ending the day in IST is definitely not fun. However it has been a very interesting week as well. Got to meet all my team members and colleagues in Gurgaon. Some of them for the first time. We had a great team party at a club called Jolly Rogers. This time in Gurgaon there was the "Kavarias" (SIC) (pronounce kavadias) yatra going on. It's about Shiva devotees carrying the Kawar - which we call as Kavadi in Tamil Nadu. 

Every airline check-in brings in a bit of a twist. This time I was carrying a whole bunch of boxes as mementos to be given to customers. I was expecting to be charged for overweight. At the counter the lady offered 2 options - one cheaper and one more expensive. That was a pleasant surprise. Checked in my hand luggage as well for a charge. Worked out just fine because I could just carry along my laptop bag. Met with Anand (my VP) post immigration and had a good time chatting with him. 

I flew Lufthansa for the first time - clearly they are ages behind Singapore airlines even with a Boeing 747 aircraft. Boarding was done like a herd of sheep getting into the aircraft - no seat number wise boarding. There was no individual monitors available in the aircraft. Guess I got too spoilt by the A380 in SQ. Frankfurt - wow - what an airport!!!! For the first time I saw people had to queue up to go to the restroom. It was so small and cramped. Germany - you disappointed me.

This seems to be the longest week as well spanning multiple time zones, so I get 1 extra day. :-) The hotel in Denver was quite comfortable. It was the Embassy Suites part of the Hilton group. Had a decent spread for the morning breakfast buffet. The few days in Denver zoomed past pretty quick as well. We had a team bowling party. Did a few strikes in 2 games. Not bad for bowling every other year or so. Jetlag was awful. I was confused between Aussie, Indian and Denver time zones. Caught up with whatever sleep I could. Managed to eat most of my american favourites which I've been missing in Sydney. The highlight being - Clam Chowder. I had been to Red Lobster with a client. He was a food lover as well so we had a lot in common to talk about other than work. Caught up with a old friend of mine (Naveen) whom I probably met after almost 12 years - Thanks to Facebook.

The Denver airport had a cool feature in the underground train shuttle which takes passengers between terminals. They had installed tiny fans along the tunnel which rotates as the train passes by in full speed. I am guessing that it could be to generate some wind energy. The flight to Atlanta was quite uneventful. Met up with the rest of the team at Atlanta airport. It was good timing since one group flew from Kansas City and we were able to pile up together on the trip to the hotel.

The hotel in Atlanta was quite spacious probably the same size as our apartment or maybe even larger. However it was not as nice as in Embassy suites. They had worn down sofas that went in completely as you plomp in. Even worse I had plumbing problems with the toilet. Being used to "manage" such issues before I was able to use it - didn't expect this in a hotel. I had an habit of not dressing up until after breakfast during this stay. It turned out to be a disaster when I did the same on the day of the presentation. Everybody else were suited and booted at the breakfast table and I was there in my t-shirts and shorts. Everybody asked if I was actually presenting that day. What an embarassment!!! My first impression with a senior management person in the company would've gone down the drain. Oh well...

The presentation went on well (I suppose!!). Of course there were some lessons learnt along the way. More on that in a separate post. It was more than a month of preparation with at least 10 versions before we could get to the final version. So much for talking for 15 minutes!! :-)  Atlanta - it was about 90% populated by people who had originated from the African continent. I had a tough time communicating with some of them when I had to ask for directions to take the right bus or train. You mix up the African American with the Southern (US) accent - you've got a killer there. ;-) Caught up with Murali in the evening. He was staying downtown Atlanta. Had to take a bus and a train to get there. Had great Chinese food at one of his regular spots. They even remembered his favourite table. The weather was just like in Chennai. 90 deg+ and as humid as it can be. 

Left back for Delhi on Friday afternoon. Good Bye America - for now!!. USA - it was interesting to observe as a visitor. Every suburb is like a template. It had to have the same elements in the type of shops. Everything looked the same including the structure within the office  even the cafeteria. Everything looked so similar to how it used to be in Phoenix. The flight back from Atlanta was a very pleasant surprise. It was a A340 aircraft and seems like Lufthansa has some decent aircrafts too. ;-) It was very much like A380 in terms of the entertainment features available. Finally I travelled without ordering for "special" meals and ate like a "commoner" in the flight. We had an interesting announcement to shut down the window on night fall. The captain said it will be a very short night tonight, so please close the window before you sleep so you don't disturb other passengers. I just had dinner but it is breakfast in Australia. To sleep or not to sleep has been the biggest question.

The 4+ hour wait in  Frankfurt was a quite boring. Frankfurt airport doesn't have much to offer except for one big BAYER sign revolving. However the terminal I had to board the Delhi flight was definitely much better than where I boarded for the US flight earlier last week. At least this terminal had WIDE toilets and didn't have to queue up outside. Travelled a window seat after a long time. Not by choice but by a request from a fellow traveller whose wife get's sick near the window. Interestingly there was another European traveller who said "Are you travelling alone - my LIFE (wife) is sitting there and I would like to sit next to her." I am pretty sure he didn't mean life but couldn't say wife. :-) Am beginning to hate Boeings. Frankfurt - Delhi was a Boeing 747 and it didn't have the individual TV. :-( Ended up listening to some old hindi songs and a hindi movie in the overhead monitor (without hearing the dialogues).

Trip to India - July 2011 - Part 1

Hi,

This is first of the series of posts around my recent travel to India and then to US.

Had an early start at 4 AM. Got ready just in time for the cab to come at 5. Had an interesting cab ride to the
airport with an Afghani cabbie. In the 30 minute or so ride he gave me the basics of being a cabbie and what it takes to own a "plate". Apparently it costs about 400 thousand dollars to be able to own a license for a taxi (just the license not the car). The revenue potential seemed quite high - probably close to revenues from a medium range apartment in Sydney.

The check-in was a bit funny. The Singapore Airlines carry on luggage limits for economy says 1 piece of baggage upto 7 kilos and a extra allowance for a laptop. My hand luggage excluding the laptop was just over 7 kg. The agent says, "I'll allow you to take it together,but once in the aircraft you need to remove your laptop from the bag.". When I asked her the reason for it, apparently it is due to hazard restrictions in Australia that one should not get hit with a luggage more than 7 kg (if it topples over someone's head from the overhead bin).

The A380 experience - someone claimed that the economy was as good as business class in terms of space or maybe I heard it wrong. It does seem to have just a wee bit of extra legroom and maybe a few centimetres of extra width. Apart from that nothing great about the space. However the inflight entertainment system definitely rocks. For the first time I have seen actually something "informative" apart from the usual movies, music and games. There were book reviews, information about cultural practices in different countries. It was interesting to read about Indian business practices - very frank.

The flight overall was good. Had the entire row of 3 seats for myself. Got to see a Singaporean movie (My Magic)- which was apparently submitted for Oscars. It was truly Singaporean because it was a mix of Tamil, Malay & Chinese. It is a story about a stage performer turned drunkard. Not a movie for those faint at heart. Finally caught up with "Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya". Singapore Airlines continues to impress me with their customer service. There was one "uncle" in the next row who had chosen a vegetarian meal. I guess he changed his mind in the last minute and he wanted the normal meal served to general public. The hostess politely refused his request.The best part was she came back and checked with him if he would like that to be changed in his next segment to Delhi. That is customer service - inspite of the fact that he was quite a "high maintenance" traveler (with frequent requests). The "Uncle" beside me was interesting. After a "few" pegs of whiskey the hostess comes around with the freshening towel and he asks "Hot or cold?". :-)

Had a great time in Singapore. Got picked up by Mamai and Athai from airport around 2.30 PM. Went straight to Mustafa shopping center to finish some shopping. Got a new camera - a Panasonic. The best part of the camera was when the salesman took a photo of a mini table fun running nearby and it captured as if the blades were stationary. Here's a sample of what I took at the hotel of a normal running fan.

After relaxing a bit at Mamai's house went to a nearby seafood restaurant for dinner along with Uma akka and Sanku. Had the Singapore famous - "Pepper Crab".

Tried several other dishes couple of spinach varieties in different sauces. Sambal prawns tasted pretty good here. Now I can compare the Malaysian food in Sydney, yes the taste was quite comparable to what I get in Sambal. Post dinner went to the Sands hotel with an idea to go up to the top.
We spent so much time trying to get a parking spot, that it got too late by then.

Walked around the hotel complex and saw some nice laser cum musical fountain shows.

Singapore to Delhi was quite uneventful. Slept through the whole time after being awake for close to 22 hours.

The international airport at Delhi was quite cool. Especially the shower and nap facilities they had was close to what they offer in Singapore. Had a great time with most of my team members today over lunch. Many of them I was meeting for the first time in person.

Jet lag is slowly kicking in right about now at around 9 PM IST. Hope it gets fixed soon.

Guess I've made up for not being able to write earlier. :-)

Have A Great Week!!

C

The Speed Of Trust - A Book Review

Recently finished reading a book on a very simple, age old concept - TRUST. It's "The Speed of Trust" by Stephen M.R. Covey. I must admit that I bought the book thinking it was written by his father - Stephen.R.Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). This is one of those books which again make you wonder why you hadn't got hold of earlier in life. The concepts are not new. The stories are not new either. He has essentially given a good mix of "7 Habits..." and "Good to Great" (by Jim Collins). The book has its pages where you turn fast to skip to the next one, but it also has pages that you turn fast eager to see what is coming up next.

One key message or rather new message that I got was Trust is not just soft feeling attributed to good character, but also a combination of competence. Character + Competence = Trust. If only we can remember this, if not all, many of our relationship issues may get better (not solved). He says "Character includes your integrity, motive and intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, skills, results and track record." Each topic is structured in a manner that the concept or habit has 2 sides to it. He discusses the 2 extremes and how one needs to be in the "sweet spot" - right in the middle for effectiveness.

When I first started with my new job in Sydney, it took a while before I could implement a few changes. At first I did not have any clue why such a time-tested proven methodology takes such a long time to be adopted. Now I realize it has got nothing to do with the methodology. The stakeholders here did not have any clue either about my character nor my competency. That simply slowed down the process. Mr. Covey calls them the "Trust Tax". I was paying them so heavily that I was almost bankrupt. :-)

Talking about capabilities and competencies, he says "The attitude and habit of continually improving is one of the prime differentiators between companies that remain relevant and succeed and those that fall by the wayside in today's global economy". Simply put - Complacency Kills!!

The author was not too convincing (in my mind) though in terms what he tries to say about re-building trust in certain extreme cases. Yes, he definitely does not give a false pretention that anything and everything can be patched up. However his initial arguments of the ability to restore lost trust and how one can go about it is a little weak.

All in all a good book. Definitely worth giving your time for this.

Enjoy

C

Sydney Stories - Week 76 & 77

Hi,

Hope all is well at your end. It has been quite hectic the past few weeks. Way too much happening at work and equally busy (or even more) on  weekends.

Finally got my name sorted out in this country. Yes, now I have an Australian ID which spells my name as it should be. It still didn't happen without a fight. After I got my passport changed it took me a few attempts to the RTA to figure out what I need to do. In my last visit I got pretty hmm...what's the word...mad? I walk up to the counter and the lady behind says..oh no we can't change a name based on your passport. I needed to get a certificate from the registrar of births and deaths. I had to explain that I cannot provide that and I was a temporary visa holder - there you go again!! She took offence when I told her to consult with her supervisors to handle this matter. She went and brought in a fairly elderly looking lady for 2nd opinion. In the first instant she too refused that it could be done. Again I insisted that someone from this very own office told me that this can be done. Luckily there was some soul who understood my situation and resolved the matter.

The other day we visited our famous Malaysian restaurant with a few other families. Normally we stick to the routine of mee goreng and char kway teaw and it never fails. This time 2 of us wanted to experiment something new. I ordered something I've always seen taken to other tables - Chilli Prawn. It used to look too  colourful to miss. What it was...was a bunch of huge jumbo/king prawns complete with the head, shell and even the limbs deep fried and then tossed in a special chilli sauce. The sauce was nice...great in fact...but eating the prawn was such a nightmare. It became a very messy affair and didn't feel like I ate anything...thanks to all the work spent on cleaning it up to eat. Chilli Prawns - Tick (but not again).

So long folks. Have A Great Week!!

C

Sydney Stories - Week 75

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

Quite a normal week here.

Currently on a book called "Speed of Trust" by Stephen M.R. Covey. I had bought the book initially thinking it was Stephen Covey the author of the 7 Habits. Apparently this is his son who wrote this book. The father has written the foreword and son keeps referring to his dad's words once in a while. One "concept"  that was new was the point about Trust being a factor of Character and Competence. I guess we normally think trust as a factor of belief, good will, honesty etc. However he goes about to a great extent explaining why competence is so important in building trust and good character alone doesn't cut it. Interesting so far.

Nandhitha's first school interview happened this week in a Catholic school. Guess she did fairly well in it mostly because of the fact that she had been to the pre-school here and she was used to playing with some of the "toys" they had given her to play.  Learning a few new rhymes from her now like 5 Cheeky Monkeys swinging on the tree. :-)

Family game time has started here with a kids version of Monopoly and Go-Fish. Remember hearing about Go-Fish many years ago (was it you Sav??) and I think I didn't quite get it then. Even now had to read up the rules several times to understand. It's not that complicated. (Guess  nothing is complicated once understood). Here mom and daughter have teamed up against me. Yet to figure out a strategy to beat them. Of course my winning streak has been on the higher side if it was just me against Nandhitha. ;-) (Shameless eh!!)

Have A Great Week

C

Sydney Stories - Week 74

Hello,

A bit delayed in last week's saga. Have been having a crazy work week with things to follow up over the weekend. Hope it slows down a bit this week.

So it is official now that I will be travelling to India and US for a couple of weeks next month on business (OB??) ;-) . The business visa stamping was quite cool. They just asked me a few questions about my work just to make sure I was consistent with what I had given in the form. I must admit that they were quite pointed questions that if someone was just making this up it was easy to miss. The most painful task was the filling up of the form online. These days even the photos have to be uploaded online. Luckily there are professionals here who know what they are doing. They knew the latest process and even suggested that I will need the photo on CD. Don't bother to save some pennies going to a post office (Australia Post) to get it done.

Am beginning to become a fan of any cleaning material that says "Oxy". The other day I had soaked a blender (with dried up onion-ginger-garlic paste) with a Oxyclean dish washing liquid. A few minutes later the stuff got self-cleaned and I just had to literally rinse it once with water. One might wonder what the great deal here is...but am sure the folks who do the dishes regularly know what I am talking about. ;-) Go Oxy!!

Came to know that I have new fans for my blogs now (Alysson and Ryan this is for you) at work. ;-) They seemed to be quite interested with the variety of cuisines especially the Thai dishes.

Have A Great Week

C

Sydney Stories - Week 73

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

The dilemma of getting Nandhitha admitted to her Kindergarten next year has started. Yes, am officially in that phase of my parenthood. I've always thought that this problem is only in India where there is such a variety of schools even at the kindergarten level. Of course I have heard about trying to live in the "right" school district so your child can get admitted in a good school. What I had not thought of is the availability of other options. In Australia they have these Catholic schools. They are cheaper by 50% for non-PR holders. Non-PR holders have to pay the full fees - $4500 per annum (in one go) for a public school, whereas in a Catholic school it is almost half. We were aware of one such school but did not apply thinking it was a new school. Apparently it is a part of a well established group. By the time we went to apply we were too late. But then the principal did give us the application forms with a line saying "Do apply - who knows - The Lord works in mysterious ways!!".

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of my company happened to be in town. Had an opportunity to spend some quality time with him (and the head from Manila while showing around a few places in Sydney. It was an interesting experience and got to know a few insights at how top management looks at certain issues. The team here had a chance to raise some of their teething concerns as well. The message was very clear - perform and get rewarded.

This week also officially marked me taking additional responsibilities at work. No change elsewhere - just that it is going to be even more hectic. It's been a while since I posted in the Kitchen. Hopefully I get to add some today. This weekend is a long weekend - Happy B'day to the Queen!! Sydney seems to have a curse that it has to rain on long weekends. It happened during Easter and now again it was a complete washout. Not that we were planning to do much, but it just kept raining on and off throughout the weekend. I hear that this will continue through Thursday.

Today we went to Lollipops playland a kids play area. It's a nice concept with hardly any complex infrastructure. There is a one time entry fee which is good for the whole day. There's nothing great - just a few jumping castles, slides and 1 merry go round ride. If you have seen a kids play area at a Mcdonalds - just expand it by 2-3 times. That is all it takes to charge $40 per family.  If you want to drain out the kids energy there is nothing better than this (esp on a rainy autumn day). This is the 2nd visit for Nandha but the first time he enjoyed on his own. The last time we were here he was just crawling and I don't think he would've enjoyed so much.

Alrighty...you have a great week.

C

Sydney Stories - Week 72

Hello,

Hope you had a great week.

Mine was quite interesting with things at work that keep me on the toes all the time.

My weekend tennis had an absolutely pathetic starting set. It must've been a while since I had lost with zero games in doubles. I pitied my partner who had to pull through the ordeal. After a few sets I played with the same guy on the opposite side and he was wondering where this game was the first time.

How often have you had a chance to enter a restaurant and the food is right there waiting on your table? Am not talking about a buffet here. We started from home pretty late for lunch at a Thai restaurant. Luckily I checked their lunch timing and knew that they closed at 3 PM. As we were driving I called them up and ordered our usual favourites. By the time we could find a parking spot and enter the restaurant it was well past 3 PM. However the food was out there ready at our table and we just started to dig in. The only problem was the food did turn a bit cold. When hunger strikes - who cares!!

Happened to drive around some of the older suburbs of Sydney. At times it gives you an impression if you are in a developed country. Roads so small that only one car can go at any time but still meant to be two-way with cars parks on both sides of the road. At one point one car had to back out to allow us to pass by. Sydneysiders definitely know how to "preserve" their past.

Have A Great Week

C

Sydney Stories - Week 71

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

I did have a good one. The week days zoomed as usual.

Happened to go a new Thai restaurant (http://www.thaipothong.com.au/) in a suburb called Newtown. Am sure the suburb must've been new at some point definitely not now. The restaurant was just amazing. We had a colleague of mine who had stayed in Thailand for many years. The responsibility of ordering food was left to him. For the first time I tried the Thai Green Papaya salad. Now I wonder why I had stayed away from this for so long. The restaurant was pretty unique. As we get seated the hosts tie up a couple of balloons in the table saying "Have A Great Party". A nice marketing tactic to show people that many people party there. Once the meal was over everyone was given a coupon booklet which resembled cash. The deal is - we can get a few $s off if bought stuff from the gift shop or a small amount reduced in our bill during the next visit.

Weekend was awesome. My friend Senthil and his family had come down for the weekend. He was in Melbourne on a short business trip and visited us for the weekend. This was my first airport pickup trip yesterday  in Sydney - for that matter in Australia. We had made ven pongal, dosai, sambar and chutney for breakfast. A south indian b'fast after a very very long time. By the time we got ready to leave and reached the city it was well beyond lunch time. Took the train from Westmead.

Got off at Central station and headed to Saap Thai. :-) After a nice meal at  Saap we moved on to take the mono rail to Darling Harbour. Figured out a new vantage point to click the complete Sydney skyline.

 After a few photographs headed towards Circular Quay. After all there can be no trip complete to Sydney without a glimpse of the Opera.

We had a nice long walk from the Westfield mall to Circular Quay - a good 1 km. By the time we reached the Opera house it was fairly dark and we

got to see the Opera by night.

There was an event happening in Circular Quay with something to do with lights. There were many light oriented "sculptures" around the area. The best part was the walls of Opera were lighted from a place at least a KM away from the International Passenger Terminal. Reached back home at around 9 PM - thoroughly exhausted.

Sydney Stories - Week 70

Hello,

As I grow older I realize that I tend to reach out to the services of GOD. Ok...before you go too far - I should attribute this to Nandhitha. For all those hard questions she has these days the word GOD seems to be my effective exit card. Probably that is how religious faiths grew by parents like me taking an easy way out when I can't explain a few things. Feel kind of cheating her of the truth. (In fact she even said that - "Dad tell me the truth " when I was seriously dumbfounded). But yes, for certain things she is not ready for the truth yet. Until then - help me GOD!!!

Starting this week I have started participating in what is called the "Global Corporate Challenge". This is a movement across the globe to make people move around more (physically) than what they are currently used to. I am part of my client's team. We are given a pedometer (and a spare just in case..) to track the number of steps I take in a 24 hour period. There are 2 teams in my client's office and the competition seems to be fierce with some hard core strategies (can't reveal them here). The target set for each one of us is to reach 12000 steps a day. So far I am barely getting close to 6000 steps a day. It's a 2 month effort. Let's see how it goes...

Currently on to a book called "Beneath the Southern Cross" by Judy Nunn. This is about a convict from England on how he arrived at the shores of Sydney and what happened after. Pretty interesting to read a lot of history mixed with fiction. I am not too sure about the history part though.

That's all for now.

Have A Great Week!!

C

Sydney Stories - Week 69

Hello,

Hope you had a great week.

Weather is dropping down drastically these days. Feels like winter already and it is not even June. The minimum temperatures are hitting single degrees. Not that I am complaining compared to the "cool" Chennai weather. Time to stock up on warm clothing for kids.

Last week happened to sit in on a seminar conducted by HP regarding one of the latest version of their products - ALM 11. One of the key highlights of the session was 2 case study presentations by  2 of their existing customers.The intent being someone like us to learn from their experiences. I witnessed the most pathetic case of public speaking by one of the presenters. It was a horrible experience which made me squirm every now and then. He started off with an apology stating he does not have jazzy presentations as others did. He had absolutely no clue of what he was talking about. One general theme I find here is a bashing of offshoring. I suppose people don't know how to make it successful for them. At the end the very last sentence he said was "Finally...THE most important aspect for this to be successful - do not hire ol' farts like me". The entire audience was so awestruck that they simply didn't have any questions for him. That was so sweet of them (us).

Nandhitha has made her censor criteria very clear for her TV viewing. There should be no fighting, no loud noises, no blood, no fire, no shooting. Of course we have our own parental limitation of not to watch any "PG" (and above) rated sitcoms in her presence. Eventually the only other thing that can be seen is Food network. She's quite fine to swap her cartoon for a food network show.

Have A Great Week!!

C

Sydney Stories - Week 68

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers !! This was a special mother's day for Uma - Nandhitha gave her a bracelot that she made on her own at her pre-school. For almost 2 weeks the excitement continued for Nandhitha when she would tell me every day the "secret" of what she has made. Thanks to Mother's day  we couldn't get a table at our favourite Malaysian restaurant (Sambal). Ended up doing a take-away. Probably that was even a better way to celebrate for the mom without having to tend to the kids at the restaurant.

This last week marks my 2nd anniversary at this country. A lot has changed of course over the 2 years. Still slowly learning the aussie way of things. A recent term I got to know was to "spit a dummy". A term used when someone shows their frustration. Apparently it comes from whining kids who don't stop crying even when given a dummy (a.k.a. pacifiier).

Yesterday we had a get together with a couple of friends - 5 families. Since it was the first time we arranged a dinner for this group I planned to take up the cooking on ourselves instead of a pot luck. It was not too bad actually. The only time consuming bit was the shopping and cleaning. Cream of mushroom soup, Thai grilled chicken (starter), Panang Fish Curry, Mixed vegetable pulao and Palak Paneer. More on this of course in the Kitchen. We also made it a poker night. It was a different game with 12 people playing in the same table (er...floor) whereas the norm is a max of 9 at a table. Am sure it would've changed the odds, but who cared for the odds anyway. ;-)

Am almost done with the novel (Playing for the Ashes) I have been reading. Not sure what the right adjective would be to describe it. In some pages, the author makes it so sick that one can almost throw up. The story is based out of London. Guess this would be my first British novel and the language of course is quite different from other American detective mysteries.

A recent favourite TV program here is Rick Stein's food odysseys. Rick Stein is a British food celebrity who travels around the world exploring cuisines and making a living out of it (Lucky fellow!!). Came to know just now that he even conducted a show in Opera house based on this TV program. If you get to see this aired in your part of the world don't miss it.

That's all folks....

Have A Great Week

C

Sydney Stories - Week 67

Hello,

Next time the week starts with 2 days of holidays - BEWARE!! Fun we did have those 2 days, but the rest of the work week was crazy - to put it lightly. Monday happened to be this year's ANZAC day, however since Monday also happened to be the Monday following Easter we had to get Tuesday off as well. Monday we took the train to the city with a simple agenda to take the monorail around. Parramatta station is a good mix of the old and the new.

Got down at Wynyard station and headed straight to Westfield mall Sydney for lunch. We reached the city just in time after the ANZAC day parade. All current and ex-servicemen were retiring back in their badged uniforms to party.

It has been a while since I was amazed just to visit a shopping mall. The last time was probably back in 89 in Singapore. The best part of it was a modern food court. The ambiance was just too cool. Food from all over the world (read Asian, Italian, Mexican) were there. Of course our intent was not the food court so moved on. I might probably go there once again just for the food court.

After food we proceeded towards the monorail station. The weather was wet and gloomy - not very suited for sight seeing. I pitied those who would've spent hundreds of $s to spend a 5 day Easter vacation in the City of Sydney just to be rained out. Enjoyed the mix of old and new buildings at the city center. Saw some really old buildings - a pharmacy that was established in 1886. We went around the city for a few times on the monorail taking a day pass. It gave a good elevated view of the city. Especially on a rainy day it seemed the best way to look around.

The week sped in lightning speed with so much to catch up on. We were planning on rather quiet weekend after all the roaming around the previous weekend. Saturday night managed to watch  கோ (Ko) in a theatre. A brilliantly done movie. Except for the heroine's hard attempt to act (reminds me of Simran in Naerukku Naer) and a silly song during a tense moment everything else was almost flawless. The final punch with திருக்குறள் (Thirukural) was so apt to the ending. Enough of the movie. It also marked Nandhitha's first official sleepover at our friend's place. They offered to babysit Nandha as well, but we took a raincheck on that. 

Last Sunday we had a chance to pick apples at a PYO (Pick Your Own) orchard at a place called Bilpin about 1.5 hours drive from here. Got to know a few things about apples there.

 The most interesting fact was that the apples we get in the market are from last year's produce.

 All through the year different varieties of apples come into season. Probably explains why suddenly certain varieties get cheap at times. This time the season was for "Pink Lady" - a sweet and sour variety. The taste of fresh apples straight from the tree was truly something. The deal was we can pick and "taste" as many apples as we want, but not to waste anything. Anything we pick needs to go into a basket which will be weighed and we had to buy all that we picked. First thought it would be cheaper to pick our own apples. Apparently not, the farmers had marked up the price to make up for all the wastage that happens in the orchard.

That's all folks.

Have A Great Week

Sydney Stories - Week 66 - Easter Special

Hello,

Life seems to be getting interesting every 33 weeks in Sydney. Week-33 was when we had bought the car. It took another 33 weeks for us to actually do some sight seeing in and around Sydney. Brace yourselves...this one is going to be long.

We had a very refreshing discovery this week in a nearby suburb called Pendle Hill. This place has a row of Sri Lankan - Indian restaurants (take away places rather) that serve a dinner for a family (of 4) for about $15. To give you a comparison, in any other restaurant a single dish  would cost about $15. You do the math...

The other day I was on the train and there was an Indian woman and 2 caucasian kids (girls). The first instance I thought maybe a baby sitter. However the kids very soon broke that speculation by calling her mom. At some point the kids started fighting over some candy and the elder one (probably about 7-8 yrs old) gobbled the particular colour that the younger one (about 4 yrs) wanted. She started crying "It is not fair...". The mom quickly quipped - "Life is not always fair darling." and went to explain that concept of life's unfairness. Could only think - WOW - now that's quite an early start for life's lessons.

Good Friday, Easter and ANZAC day - put together gave us a 5 day weekend. The longest public holiday I've ever enjoyed so far. I guess Prabhu Deva's song "Pandigai thaethi Sundayil vandhaa.." does not apply to Australia. Holidays have to be taken during week days even if it means 2 events happen on the same day, 2 week days have to be given off. So our weekend started on a Thursday night when we had friends come over for dinner and hence the Gobi Manchurian. The girls did have a lot of fun.

A lot of plans were thought of for months on what could be done during Easter. For a long time we were contemplating on a road trip to Melbourne. However decided against any major trip for a simple reason -  we haven't looked around much in Sydney yet. Decided to take a completely casual "play by the ear" holiday without any concrete plans.

On Saturday we left on a short trip to Hunter Valley Garden along with 2 other families. 1 of them was Nandhitha's pre-school friend's parents and another of their friends - both of them from Wipro. Hunter Valley is the wine country for this region in Australia. It was a nice drive up there with just a little bit of scare from the rain god. Probably not a great season to visit though as the vines were all dried up. Uma took over most part of the driving. The main agenda was to take part in an Easter egg hunt which was organized in Hunter Valley Garden (www.hvg.com.au).

 Our last memories of an egg hunt was a few years ago in Phoenix when Nandhitha was about Nandha's age and we didn't want to miss it for any reason. We somehow made it to the last session of the egg hunt. Nandhitha had fun and Nandha had his own private egg hunt too without the pressure of his peers running over him. At the end of the hunt each participating kid was given a bag of Cadbury Easter eggs.  A trip cannot turn out to be too pleasant if you are tagging along with some one where your cell phones don't work. The battery in mine died and the pre-paid call charge in Uma's drained up after (quite) a few calls. It was a comedy of life. Got to make another trip to the garden some other time in leisure. We made it back home by around 7.30 PM completely drained out on energy. Wonder how our parents managed to take us out while we were this age. I was telling Uma that next time we go out on such trips need to have an energy shot taken - double shot long black (aka strong black coffee) couldn't do the trick!!

Sunday our plan was to take a ferry to the city and cover a bit of Sydney CBD (Central Business District - Downtown in USA). We had a pretty lazy start without any hard bound plans. The ferry was an interesting experience too. We parked our car near the ferry wharf in Parramatta. Being the Easter sunday the ferry was quite crowded that we had to wait for 2 hours for our turn. We had to "reserve" our seats so we could get on to the ferry. Of course we made the best use of the time - had lunch which was originally scheduled to be had in the city. Went to a Thai restaurant - Saute Thai. More about that in the kitchen. Got to know a bit of history of Parramatta - which is an English version of the aboriginal word Baramada (or Burramatta) meaning the place where eels rest. Now I understand why the local rugby team is called Parramatta Eels.

The ferry ride as such was nothing great. It was a typical ride along the backwaters of Sydney. However the view that we got just as we were entering the city was something. The ferry reached Circular Quay after a 45 minute ride. It usually stops in a few places along the way, but since it was full occupancy it turned to be an express ride. Circular Quay is where we need to go to the Opera House.

 Even though we initially thought of covering a few places in the city, yesterday was spent completely at the Opera.

 This was the first visit for Uma and kids to the Opera. My first with a camera so I was having a field day myself. We took the guided tour around the house which is considered to be one amongst the "World Heritage Sites". It was an interesting tour even though we had taken only the basic version. 

There is an extended back stage version - maybe some other time. Nandhitha became the star of the tour. When the guide took a short break for questions it was Nandhitha's hands that went up first. :-) Of course she "forgot" what she wanted to ask. The next time she stopped for a question everybody was looking at Nandhitha if she had any. ;-)  Anytime a project goes over schedule and budget it can easily be called as "Project Opera". It was initially budgeted for 7 million dollars to be completed in 3 years. It "just" took 102 million dollars and 16 years to complete. Not sure where this can be attributed to. We hung around there till about 7 PM to get a view of the skyline at night. 

 and returned by train. I asked Nandhitha whether she wanted to go back by the ferry or by train. She says "It's Daddy's choice isn't it how we go home?" and then adds on "but but but...in the boat there are too any holes (windows) and lot of cold air and I feel cold. So better take the train so it is not cold." And so the train. 

The transportation for the entire journey costed $5. In Sydney they have a concept called "Sunday Funday" where they encourage families to get out and use the public transport for quality family time. So each ticket cost $2.50 for the whole day and you can take a train, bus or a ferry anywhere within metropolitan Sydney. I already had my monthly pass and just had to buy tickets for Uma and Nandhitha.

So long folks...the weekend is yet to be over. More about that in this week's ramblings.

More photos available at: Hunter Valley Gardens and Opera House.

Have A Great Week!!

C