Free for Feedback...

A regular day at work... a window pops up... "Hey , u interested in a 2 day stay at a 5-star? Its free , but u can take only a gal companion ". I thought my friend had gone nuts... I said "ofcourse!!!!" and thats how I got into it...

"It" being auditing a 5 star hotel in hyderabad... My friend referred me to this organization which organises mystery audits of restaurants, hotels, flights. They were looking for 2 girls to audit the exclusive womens suite in a 5 star hotel of hyderabad. Our whole stay would be sponsored. We had to eat in all the restaurants, avail all services , and give our feedback. I was sceptical - Was this for real?????

I brought tanu on board... we started of with a restaurant audit...it was interesting. The depth and detail of the audit was impressive..... and then we got our hands dirty on the real project..

2 days went by in a blur... we, hardly got enough time to revel in our sponsored "holiday"... prepared to play the role of 2 hot-shot exec's on vacation, we brought our best, and were at our polished most! we wined and dined in 4 restaurants, 2 lounges , 1 pub.... checked out the spa , got ourself a massage... invited a lot of our friends over .... and in the spare time, filled in voluminous feedback reports!!!!!

At the end, it was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work..... But an awesome experience.....And a different experience... I just so love doing crazy things, something off-beat, something outside my regular work ... that weekend being my last in hyd proved to be the perfect ending to my 2 yeanr and 4 month stint!!!!!

And do u have to ask??? ofcourse, I intend to do more of them!!!

From the Other Side of The Glass...

"The rude arch of yellow basalt thrusts its haughty form into the city's skyline just above a little promontory lapped by the waters of bay of Bengal. The bay's gentler waves barely stir the sullen green sludge of debris and garbage that encircles the concrete apron sloping down from the arch to the waters edge. A strange world mingles there in the shadows cast by its soaring span: snake charmers and fortune tellers, beggars and tourists, disheveled hippies lost in torpor of sloth and drug, the destitute and dying of a cluttered metropolis. Barely a head is raised to contemplate the inscription still clearly legible, stretched along the summit: "Erected to commemorate the landing in India of the imperial majesty's, George V and Queen Mary on the 2nd of Dec MCMXI".

Yet, Once the vaulting gateway of India was the arch of triumph of the greatest empire the world has ever known. To generations of Britain's, its massive form was the first glimpse caught from a steamers deck of the storied shores for which they had abandoned their midlands villages and Scottish hills. Soldiers and adventures , businessmen and administrators , they had passed through its portals come to keep the pax Britannica in the empire's proudest possession, to exploit a conquered continent to take up the Whiteman’s burden with the unshakeable conviction that theirs was a race born to rule , and the their empire an entity destined to endure. All that seemed so distant now. Today the gateway of India is just another pile of stone , at one with Nineveh and Tyre, a forgotten monument to an era that ended in its shadows half a century ago. "

And thus begins "Freedom at midnight". Written by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, it is the best piece on Indian history that I have come across. Such vivid, powerful narration!!!!!! They beautifully draw out the pre-independence India...a picture I never knew existed.... the description of people, places, events, attitudes.... I am sure I’ll remember more from this book than I ever did from my voluminous history books from school. It’s the perfect guide to understanding this nation of diverse cultures, beliefs, languages... to understanding what others saw in us...

The Indian Dream: The Dream of the Brit Youths Then...
"The India of those men was that picturesque, romantic India of Kipling's tales. Their's was the India of gentlemen officers in plumed shakos riding at the head of their turbaned sepoys of districts magistrates lost in the torrid rays of the Deccan; of sumptuous, imperial balls of summer capital of Shimla; cricket matches on the manicured lads of Calcutta's Bengal club; polo games on the sun burnt planes of Rajasthan, tiger hunts in Assam, young men sitting down to dinner in black ties in a tent in the middle of the jungle, solemnly proposing their toast in port to the king emperor while jackals howled in the darkness around them; officers in scarlet tunics pursuing rebellious pathan tribes in the sleet or unbearable heat of the frontier.

It represented challenge and adventure and its boundless spaces and arena in which England's young men could find a fulfillment their islands more restricted might deny them. They arrived in the docks of Bombay at 19 or 20, barely able to raise a stubble on their chins. They went home 35 or 40 years later, their bodies scarred by bullets, by disease, a panther's claws or a fall on the polo field, their faces ravaged by too much sun and too much whisky but proud of having lived there part of a romantic legend. "

Punjab...
"The Punjab was the crown jewel of India. It was a land of rivers and golden fields of wheat, great rich fields rolling down to a distant blue horizon, an oasis blessed by the Gods in the midst of India's arid face. "

Shimla...
"The most bizarre product of the British raj, a strangely anomalous, consummately English creation planted in the Himalayan foothills, the little town of Shimla. Five months out of every year, that miniature Sussex hamlet 7300 feet high tucked just below the roof of the world, ha become a great imperial capital, the site from which the British ruled the Indian empire and its associated satellites fro Red sea to Burma. "

The Maharajas...
"It had once seemed to Rudyard Kipling that providence had created the maharajas just to offer mankind a spectacle, a dazzling vision of marble palaces, tigers, elephants and jewels. Powerful or humble, rich or poor, threes was an extraordinary breed whose members had fuelled those legends of an India now on the brink of extinction. The accounts of their vices and virtues, there extravaganzas and prodigalities, their follies and their eccentricities had enriched folklore and entranced a world hungry for exotic dreams. There day was ending, but when the maharajas of India were gone, the world would be a duller place. "

Upon the Westminster

Earth has not anything to show more fair
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

- William Shakespear

London Snap shots

London Experiences

(31st May - 6th June 05)

- Dragging 2 huuuge suitcases and switching 3 underground lines!!! Thanks to my friend maams and his roommate , i managed it :)

- Ordering a fancy coffee for 2 Pounds which came in a cup exactly 1.5 inches in height and 1 inch in diameter, when the guy on the next table got a bigger cup for 1 pound...

-Getting directions from a Red Coat.. :D

- Hopping on and off the local buses just to check out arbitrary streets which caught my attention.... I just loved these buses which had all the stops listed out...... :) ...

- Loved the tubes too... Checking out the office-going crowd in their formal attire is a treat to any fashion lover....

- Donning a skirt in a restroom adjacent to the underground like just another Londoner woman changing from work clothes to party wear....

-Eating a hot waffle with chocolate and whipped cream on Oxford street...

-Window shopping on Oxford Street..

-Watching the artists create awesome portraits on Leciester Square...

- Trying not to stare at the couple making out right across me in the tube like it was what I did everyday!!!

- Touring alone... Something a lot of my friends said they would never do!!!


Things I want to do or do differently...

- Not waste 11 pounds in seeing the royal gallery or mews...
(money was dear !!! )

- The London Eye wasn't a great thing either...

- I missed clubbing and dining in London because I was touring alone.... Heard Cafe De' Paris is happening..

- Though I enjoyed staying with a friend, next time I do want to be in a hostel... where I can meet different people... I wish I had gone to some pubs , just to strike up some conversation with the people there...

- All Women attn : don't step into London without jazzy bangles, long earrings, and fancy skirts !!

- Must Shop !!!!!!!

- Do opera's happen in London? Want to see one!

More pics coming here!!!

In Love With London....

(31st May- 6th June 2005)

This place was a part of my fantasies...I had read about it, I had dreamt about it, I had lived in it with all my characters.....And I finally got to see it....

London just came alive to me ....... Since 4th standard in school, when I started on Enid Blyton's ,all the books I read about were all set in London...Be it Poirot , Sherlock Holmes , Wuthering Heights, Emma, Charlotte Bronte, Treasure Island, Scarlet Pimpernal, St. Clares & Malory Towers or just my history book... Georgette Heyer was the last of the this series who had fuelled my imagination and my love for this place... What with her Genteel Ladies going to bath for the Season or riding up Grosvenor's square in their horse drawn carriages or going to Hyde park for an evening ride........

The city has an air about it. Most of the buildings are representative of Britain's past. The architecture (specially in the city of Westminster) in limestone and gray , with Ornate carvings, you can feel the weight of her history , culture and the power she had once upon a time wielded.

These old buildings, the bridges, the Thames, the redbrick bay windowed houses, the creepers on the walls , narrow streets, Modern coffee houses and pubs in quaint buildings, red coats, small olden day like black taxis, and the buzzing 21st century crowd - all add up to the Soul of the city.

And like a child in a toy store I reveled in going to all these places like Bond street, Grosvenor's square, picadilly, Gloucester, Hyde park..... I could close my eyes and almost imagine and feel the 18th century era......

I took an unlimited bus/underground pass for a week and chose to check the places out by myself, instead of taking the famous Bus Tour. I started off with Buckingham palace, The Mews, James Park... Walked all the way to Westminster abbey and checked out the Big Ben , and the parliamentary buildings. Then I took the buses to places like bond street, trafalgar's square , Gloucester , bakers street......

Next day saw me exploring Greenwich, the trinity college of music, taking a ride on the Thames, going up the London eye . The highlight of the day was the Musical I went to -"The Phantom of the Opera" ..... There are 2 - 3 roads which have a lot of theatres ( for musicals) and the whole place is called as theatreland... And what a kick I got out of checking this otherwise just-another-area-in-London....I am such a sucker for fancy names!!!!!!!! The musical was very nice, the props amazing... Next time I plan to sit right close to the stage instead of on the balcony ( view not too good!!)...






Day 3...I looked up some walking routes... i got to know about hampstead heath - this place seems familiar , but i cant place it!!! a lovely park yet again in a quite posh locality....I also chanced upon 'Keats house' and a pizzeria which was earlier the place were George Orwell worked!!!

Day 4...Maams and me hit oxford street, regent street , leciester square for some window shopping, and some people watching!

Another thing I loved about London- was the fashion ... The way the women dress... fancy skirts, stockings, boots, scarves, tops on tops, a lot of colors all at once , yet not so jazzy.... I still am yet to figure out how they bear the cold in their mini's.....

As I made plans to leave for london, I was warned of their cold fish and formal nature... contrary to that, I found quite a lot of them very friendly ... :) And every moment over here was more than I ever thought it would be!!!!

Made up my blog...

3 night outs... hours of trying to understand the essence of the template.... wrestling with adobe and html, editing , preiewing and re-publishing ...I managed to deck my blog up....:) ofcourse, thanks a ton to blogskins.com for those lovely skins which provided me with a lot of the code (though I couldn't find a skin which was out-doorish )......

ps: I surprise myself... I promised never to see another piece of code.. and here i was breaking my head for a blog!!!!