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You already know that I didn’t have much to do during my London stay, but hey, I did go around the museums in town including the Tower Of London. TOL is a historic castle that houses a good number of ancient artifacts, war time stuff and some weird stuff like the ‘accounts book’ pictured below.

I also went hands-on (well almost, just a glass separating us) with the Kohinoor Diamond. Given the hype that diamond is, I spent a few mins trying to get a good view of it, walking wrong way on the moving belt that gives you a glimpse and moves you out of sight. But looking back at the Tower of London visit, the Kohinoor Diamond is not the thing that runs on my mind, it is the Lance pictured below. May be I am not a jewelry person…

Its been a few months and I am almost losing track of what is what, so here is the Tower of London in pictures:

Remember seeing these in Age of empires series, only here in real life

Real and Serious Guard At The Tower Of London

I don’t even remember which building this is, but there are many there. The hot chocolate coffee at the cafeteria inside the Tower Of London is Yummy! Read the rest of this entry »

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Back in March (2011) I disappeared for a month to UK and while I spent a month there, there are only two significant things I did. The First being a visit to Stone Henge (picture below) and the other being ‘Startup Weekend Cambridge.’

Startup Weekend is this 54 hours madness that brings together business folks, developers, designers and jack of all trades like me to build a startup over a weekend. Ones with an idea pitch it, voting follows and teams are formed organically. These teams have to come back with a product / prototype / demo / whatever by Sunday evening and present to the judging panel. In march, Startup Weekend, which has as of today done over 100 cities and 250 action packed weekends, came to India.

My friend Pankaj Jain was (he still is) passionately spearheading the India leg of SW and I decided to jump in and help organize Delhi and Bangalore. Events were planned, dates final, lots of pre-event work done and then UK happened at the same time as SW Bangalore and Delhi. And right then, Pjain pointed me to Startup Weekend Cambridge and I signed up for it immediately. So as the folks in India were organizing Bangalore, I participated in Cambridge. Left home with a view of seeing startup action in UK, getting a feel of the event, floating around multiple teams and chilling over the weekend.

What happened was crazy. Read the rest of this entry »

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This strikes me when I meet a friend in Pune, whom I haven’t seen for a little over 6 months. While both of us are based in Mumbai, plans to meet or head out for a movie rarely works out. But fast forward to Pune, where I would spend a day or two in 3 months and she would spend 4 days a month visiting her home, its so much easier to catchup for us when these dates overlap and both of us are in Pune! Weird and we sure laughed at it.

<rant> But then we sure can’t ignore the fact that its the hour and half or two hours of travel to and fro that comes in our way here. And for me a little more than the time involved, its the poor conditioned auto-rickshaws (if you at all find one) or the super uncomfortable Fiat Taxis that kills the enthusiasm of going out of the suburbs.

Screenshot of a chat with a Mumbai Friend:

I am perhaps one of the most irregular members of the Kala Ghoda Gelato Tweetup where a few good friends catchup on the first of every month. More than taking a train from Andheri to Churchgate for the tweetup, its the worry of getting a auto ride to Andher stn is my issue.

I am often surprised when my friend from Bangalore (Kesava) visits Mumbai and plans his meetings something like this: a) Breakfast at Belapur, b) Lunch at Dadar, c) Post lunch meeting at my office in Jogeshwari and then d) a evening trip to Thane before meeting us for dinner back @ Andheri.

A tourist like him can manage that, but for me the everyday wait of over 20 mins just to get an autorickshaw to office, is sure frustrating and super unproductive. One reason why I might well settle out of Mumbai (may be not far but in Pune), would be the serious headache traveling here is.

Would a car + driver make things easy? Perhaps. But then $$ Q it is! I am doing a little calclulations and while the results are yet to come, I have a feeling that after the recent auto fare price hike in Mumbai, a car+driver might be more affordable for me.

Auto drivers have admitted to me that they make more than Rs 1000 on an average day (if they own the auto) or Rs 500+ if they rent an rickshaw (all thanks to the obnoxious price hike).Do I have a problem with that? No! But then I expect to get good service. A ride to my destination without begging to autos. Autos that are properly conditioned (ever noticed how badly they maintain them? shockups? pollution?). </rant>

If I am to sum up. Chat, SMSes and emails are only this good. Annkur loves to meet friends offline. And I would do my best to do that. Starts with taking sundays off work and meeting you : )

Update (April 2013): Title changed to reflect ‘commuting’ instead of traveling. Also, I got a car last year. It is far more economical indeed.

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I have taken roughly 12 flights in the last two years and the only, I repeat the only final criteria to pick a flight has been the price. Anything more than a Rs 100 above / less the mark, I would chose the other! So be it Go Air, Indigo or Kingfisher. If you are the cheapest, I fly you. However this changed and changed for good after my last flight with one of the low cost airlines. I tweeted when boarding that that flight that it would be my last flight with this airline, why? Well there was nothing particularly broken on their part, its just that by design their system doesn’t work for me anymore.

The rush on the faces of the staff, the loud whispers of money being exchanged to buy food, the ignorant ground staff (who can’t even ensure that a Que. is maintained) and the failure to give even a glass of water without charging. Perhaps the last one would have been a good reason, but that wasn’t really the cause. Yes I went thirsty on a flight back from Delhi, for I had no cash but cards – But that isn’t what made me pay a premium.

As I type this, I am off to Kolkata, seated on a window seat onboard an early morning flight. After seeing the sunrise, its the mild heat on my right ear, that is pleasing me. Even as that same heat irritates a co-passenger asking me to close one of the windows, I am enjoying it. I can calmly put my head into the system and type out a few articles in the hour that I have in hand and its so much more peaceful. I can see the onboard crew’s eye for detail.

They aren’t busy in their heads thinking about the sale of sandwiches, peanuts and water bottles, but turning on reading lights for passengers reading a newspaper before the lights are dimmed for take off. They aren’t busy preparing for the safety demonstrations (it plays as a video), but giving the extra helping hand to get all the luggage bags settled. Yes the passengers by all means are rude, before you even reach their seats, they would pickup a couple of bottles from your tray and all you would do is smile and offer them a juice along.

For some reason, this gives me a space to be calm and enjoy the takeoff which would normally have me scared (yes, I am terrified during take offs, landings are better). IMO with less than 3 hours of sleep last night, this is a well deserved peace of mind that I have bought. Yes I paid a premium, but I am happy. I find it worth the added cost.

Note: Yes, I can’t afford the couple of grands extra every-time I fly, but whenever I see the difference in my hitting range, I would go for it.

Note 2: Its sure a pain to fly early early morning. And more than getting the entire day in hand when arriving at the destination, its the sunrise from 10000 mts up in the air that has started to attract me.

Recommended read: Anaggh’s – Indian Airlines Post! Inspired me to write this.