The Austrian Connection
9/11, the day brings back many vivid memories about America's war against terrorism, but for us, a gaggle of arnd 60 people, it was an exciting day. To make matters clearer, it was 9-11 alright, but in 2006!
55 dealers from all across the country, who had performed well, were to be incentivised for their performance and I was asked to accompany them. it was my first international trip, but somehow, i felt nothing. Almost like I was going on one more sales tour!
Luckily this would change and I would have a rollicking time in Austria!
The international terminal at IGI airport had a less than normal crowd, probably because of the date that was chosen. But it also meant faster checkin and lesser Q time. We boarded our flight with one dealer almost missing it, because of late arrival. it was my first wide body aircraft experience, and I almost felt that I had entered a packed cinema hall!
The flight to munich had a stop over in Doha, the famous duty free and we made a beeline for duty free and I soon saw many of our team chappies, loading up on the goodies. what really surprised me was the neat and ordered layouts and the stark contrastbetween the hapenning airport and the dry prohibiting desert outside. temperatures, easily touching 45 degrees in the sun.
Landed in Munich (Munchen) in the evening at around 5.30 PM, German time and we boarded our coach that would take us to innsbruck. I was floored by the Auto-Bahns that we travelled on. Speeds not less than 110(infact there is a minimum speed that you have to adhere to!), yet absolutely no honking or jams. Perfect lane discipline and fantastic traffic management. I'll never forget the sight of the BMW motorcyclists zipping past traffic at around 180 KmPh, weaving in and out of lanes. Germany is incidentally Europe's auto heart, with the likes of Damlier Chrysler, BMW, etc having their headquarters and plants, it is Europe's technology and industrial hub, attracting people from all across Europe, especially East Europe which is economically weaker than the west.
Reached Insbruck on schedule and rested fior the day. I was shocked to see that the hotel of almost 100 rooms was managed by a workforce of less than 7 peple. Labour I was told was scarce and expensive in Austria. So people multitasked and minimised repetitve work. For example, the restaurant was pure buffet style and the rooms were small, to minimise cleaning time(in fact all hotels in Europe have small rooms(compared to Indian standards)). the shocker came when I was told that the water that came out through the bathroom faucet was fit for drinking! It took me some courage to drink right from the tap!
The day began with a walking tour of the old city and I was simply overwhenlmed with the Gothic architecture, the cobbled streets and the shops lining then, giving a quaint old feel to the entire place.
we visited Mozart's house and I was taken in by the painstaking restoration and maintainence of teh old building dating abck to almost 400 years!
The city was filled with musicians and artists who lined the strets, some painting away, some singing or playing the guitar. It was a lovely sight and I was especially appreciative of a musician who was singing his compositions and also selling his album CDs' next to a church, not with desperation but with considerable pride!
Part 2 tommorow!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
I, Me and the Artifical Climbing Wall
Shutdown time at the plant means near to empty roads, silent production lines, a sudden calm and quiet compared to the hubub of activity. It also means a holiday like atmosphere(well for 95% of employees it is indeed hols) and a general tendency to take it easy.
Add to this the sudden splendid weather (30 max 22 min) and you just don't feel like staying in office.
Just then I had this terrific urge to do some climbing. Checked out the net for artificial climbing walls in Delhi and courtesy google, found one in Delhi, at the Indian Mountaineering foundation.
A call and we were ready to go. Me and Bhatia. A special mention about Bhatti, he proved his climbing prowess last year at Potter Hill when he took on a sheer cliff as if he were climbing up an ordinary ladder and I expected that he would cream this as well as he's a mountain goat in human form!
we reached IMF at arnd 5.00 PM. set against the DU south campus, it had a great feel. Two 30 feet Tata-IMF walls with a great pulley and rope mechanism that could be set for an easy as well as a terrific and challenging climb. varying the angle between 0 to a 180 degrees!
But what took the cake was the artificial "bouldering" roof, where you would literally have to do a spiderman. Imagine crawling on the roof of a room with your back to the ground! sounds impossibe?? well believe it! Cause that's what I saw chaps doing. Holding on to the grips on the roof with bare hands and pushing with their toes, I saw them move across the roof. A real tough feat. Just knocks your breath away.
Coming back to the main story, as you would have guessed, by the time I was thru with 2 walls, one with a negative slope(which means you have to traverse a overhang kind of a slope) I was dead, just couldnt lift a matchstick, whereas Bhatti did 4(yes four) sorties, climbing up and down!! Man he's one amazing guy to watch in action.
With sore and almost numb arms we made it back to pavillion and when I got up in the morning just couldn't feel my arms anymore!
Well a great experience, worth every sec. watch out for my next blog. Special feature on my Austria trip!
Shutdown time at the plant means near to empty roads, silent production lines, a sudden calm and quiet compared to the hubub of activity. It also means a holiday like atmosphere(well for 95% of employees it is indeed hols) and a general tendency to take it easy.
Add to this the sudden splendid weather (30 max 22 min) and you just don't feel like staying in office.
Just then I had this terrific urge to do some climbing. Checked out the net for artificial climbing walls in Delhi and courtesy google, found one in Delhi, at the Indian Mountaineering foundation.
A call and we were ready to go. Me and Bhatia. A special mention about Bhatti, he proved his climbing prowess last year at Potter Hill when he took on a sheer cliff as if he were climbing up an ordinary ladder and I expected that he would cream this as well as he's a mountain goat in human form!
we reached IMF at arnd 5.00 PM. set against the DU south campus, it had a great feel. Two 30 feet Tata-IMF walls with a great pulley and rope mechanism that could be set for an easy as well as a terrific and challenging climb. varying the angle between 0 to a 180 degrees!
But what took the cake was the artificial "bouldering" roof, where you would literally have to do a spiderman. Imagine crawling on the roof of a room with your back to the ground! sounds impossibe?? well believe it! Cause that's what I saw chaps doing. Holding on to the grips on the roof with bare hands and pushing with their toes, I saw them move across the roof. A real tough feat. Just knocks your breath away.
Coming back to the main story, as you would have guessed, by the time I was thru with 2 walls, one with a negative slope(which means you have to traverse a overhang kind of a slope) I was dead, just couldnt lift a matchstick, whereas Bhatti did 4(yes four) sorties, climbing up and down!! Man he's one amazing guy to watch in action.
With sore and almost numb arms we made it back to pavillion and when I got up in the morning just couldn't feel my arms anymore!
Well a great experience, worth every sec. watch out for my next blog. Special feature on my Austria trip!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Sarpass Trek
Flashback:
Location: Pune Airport lounge
Time: 2200 Hrs IST, December 2006
State: Bored, tired and ratty at flights being interminably delayed
The oddest of times when a person gets inspired and that's what precisely happened. I just realised that I wanted to trek in the Himalayas!
A call to a startled friend, who'se an avid trekker, in bangalore and I had the low down of how to go about it and just then the departure call came in. I took off in high hopes but once back in Delhi, forgot all about it.
Back to the future:
Location: Office
Time: 1000 Hrs IST, 7 May 2007
State:Bored, tired and ratty, for no reason whatsoever
A mail dropped into my mail box and I went into auto mode and opened it and to my surprise I saw that it was from my friend's friend who wanted to cancel his trek to a place called Sarpass, in the Himalayas and inspiration returned in a flash! I just had to go!(to Sarpass i.e. :))
I checked out the Youth Hostel Association of India(YHAI) website and saw that there was a slot availble on 11th and went thru the details. A 11 day trek from 6500 feet to 13800 feet?! boss are you crazy? asked a friend of mine..what?! a 10 day vacation?? how the hell will you manage it? asked another..Words had no effect as I booked myself on the trek online. Next step was to some how convince boss about my leave and to my surprise he gave in without a shot being fired.
Ma
y 11th. A hectic day and I was already one day late for my trek. At 11 pm I started out from Gurgaon on a rain lashed night and caught the bus to Delhi ISBT. Travelling continously for almost 21 hours, sleepless, on rickety buses, I reached Kasol exhausted but at first sight of the camp realised that the effort was worth it. The camp was in a fairy tale setting, river Parvati flowing by and hemmed in by snow capped mountains!
That evening, I wandered around camp and was getting to know people from different parts of India. I didnt know then, but I would soon become Chotu and Chutki's(the 2 sweetest kids I have ever met!) "Chikappa"or simply "Su", for the dashing Kandus' I would be "Optic Nerve", for the Royal Jodhpuris, the Chattisgarh studs and the Gujarat gang I would just be Prashanth Bhai! Each one of these people were unique in their own way and mannerisms and we had a great time together!.
I had missed the mandatory 2 days of the orientation and acclimitasation and some how patafied the camp leader (bless her heart) that i was fit and ready to go. The next day was the rock climbing and rappelling course and our two young instructors literally knocked our breath away with their dare devil "commando" rappel down of 80 feet of near vertical rock in less than 3 secs!!
The next day after my first open air roof top bus ride, we started our actual trek and after a long and ardous trek, reached the camp. In the next few days we would face treacherous trails, wateralls by the dozens, thick forests, steep and dangerous climbs, heavy rains, biting cold winds and freezing temperatures. the toughest camp was the mountainous zirmi camp and the frozen 
Tila Lotni at arnd 13000 feet where the it was literally freezing and even the slightest exposure meant certain frost bite..
The final summit at 13800 feet was breathtaking 
and after a 2 km slide down in the snow, hurtling at close to 45 KmPh in the snow, and a lovely trek, we reached the next camp, Bhandak Thatch. A special mention here. This was the most beautiful campsite and I can confidently say that even Switzerland will pale in comparison with this ultimate grassland hemmed in by snow capped mountains. after that we were actually sorry that the trek would end soon and I can still remember that look on Chotu's face when we were 
heading back to base camp when she must have been thinking that everyone now will go their seperate paths and will probably forget about each other. Our group had grown close to each other, total strangers who by a quirk of fate were meant to go through the amazing experiences, in the process rediscover themselves. I'm sure SP11will stay strong and we will meet again. As at the end of the day , as someone said, "what is important is the journey, not the destination"
These memories will indeed stay forever!