US Trip November 2006

US Trip Oct 29^th – Nov 8^th 2006

Sunday Oct 29^th

5AM - I landed at Chicago airport and had about 3 hours after making it through customs and immigration and my flight to Seattle. I saw a Wolfgang Puck restaurant that was open and had a nice goat cheese and veggie omelet with coffee and white bread. It cost $15. It was alright.

Queen Sheeba – Ethiopian lunch with Vijay and Vidya

Discussed how Vijay and Vidya wanted to name their daughter Anya but remembered that I’ve already named my daughter Anya. The cold injaras on this cold, dark and rainy Sunday in Seattle were quite average. The chicken was good but the injaras were not.

We then went looking for baby stuff and furniture for the new baby. I bought some refrigerator door latches so that Anya and Anay would not be able to open the door at will. We spoke about all things. It was good to see them.

Mama’s Mexican Kitchen – Mexican Dinner with Vijay

I always eat at this place when I go to Seattle. I like their generous helping of Guacamole and sour cream on their Veggie Nolasco burritos. We had a couple of beers and had an interesting conversation about Vijay returning back and the quality of work at MSFT India and compared that with the work being done at Adobe India

Vijay dropped me to the hotel at 9:30PM. I went to bed as I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

Monday Oct 30^th

Had a $15 breakfast at the Alexis Hotel. I had a mushroom and pesto omlette, which was too heavy and really bad. I must remind myself to not eat at the Alexis in the morning. It spoils my mood for the rest of the day. The roasted potatoes were ok and the cappuccino was too dry and the worst I’ve ever had. I left all of it at the table.

I met Susan and her husband. They were in the process of moving back to Boston. We had a nice cappuccino at Adobe’s café at the Seattle office. The award winning barista was really good. She knew how to do a cappuccino.

Jai Thai – Had a good lunch combo at Jai Thai in Fremont, as always. The food was good. The red curry chicken, rice and pad thai were all very tasty. I’d go back their again. The lunch conversation with Mike, Susan, Meredith and I was extremely enjoyable and hilarious at times. We discussed the Round Box strategy project (RBS Project or Our B. S. project) and discussed this loud QE in core tech.

I had a simple dinner at some Italian restaurant. The food was good and expensive.$35 for my glass of wine, ravioli and dessert.

Tuesday Oct 31^st.

I left the hotel at 4:45AM to catch the 6:15AM flight from Seattle to San Jose. I’ll never do this again. This flight left too early in the day and made the night before stressful. In fact, I was so tired when I reached San Jose that I actually went back to the hotel to sleep during the lunch hour.

Adobe Café – Had lunch with Wendy at the Adobe café. I had the stuffed Portobello mushroom with rice. It was interesting but left me unsatisfied. I was too tired to enjoy the meal anyway, so, I went back to the hotel and slept for 1 hour minutes.

Limon – I drove to San Francisco so that I could have dinner with Vlad and then enjoy the late night Halloween revelry at the Castro. The dinner was great. We ate at Limon. (http://www.limon-sf.com/). This was a tapas place on 16^th and Valencia. The mushrooms, chicken, Sangria and the wine were all excellent. I’d love to go back there again. In all it cost us $70 for dinner and drinks and desert.

We then walked up to 16^th and castro. The costumes were not as interesting as they had been earlier. The funniest thing we saw was the two guys dressed in Spiderman costumes hanging on trees and sitting on the roof of the bus stop. They looked uncannily real. We left the castro at 10PM. Nine people were shot there at 10:30PM that night. It was really crowded, as always. It was a good think we left early.

Wednesday Nov 1^st

I had an excellent breakfast at Chloe’s (http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/899040/) . Their consistency amazes me. They really know how to do scrambled eggs and red potato homefries. Most excellent as always.

For lunch, Bruce Bowman and I went to La Taqueria in San Jose (http://www.jatbar.com/detail.asp?num=692) and had two humongous tacos each. These are probably the best tacos I’ve had in a while. They chicken was succulent and the guacamole really fresh. The two on table salsas were yummy. I’ll try to eat there before I leave for India on Wednesday

For dinner, I went to Naresh Mausaji’s place. It was good to see him recovered from cancer. Even though he had his kidney removed, he was in high spirits and we had a really nice cabernet. We spoke about all the kids leaving for school and how they wanted Neil to move back to California. It is strange how quickly life changes. Mausaji went from buying a $3M house in Saratoga to waiting at the same house for the next 3 years to completely rule out the possibility of cancer.

We ate at a new york pizza place in Sunnyvale. I don’t remember the name, it wasn’t worth remembering anyway.

Thursday Nov 2^nd

Creative Solutions BU Program Managers summit.

Dinner- had really funny conversations with Erica, Rod, Ian, Justin, Jill and Beth about Holi, India and academic mother’s and fathers in the UK. We ate at the Paragon bar and restaurant in San Jose (http://siliconvalley.citysearch.com/profile/41606742) . The wine that Barry chose was fantastic. It was a cabernet from the Hess estate. (http://www.hesscollection.com/)

Friday Nov 3^rd.

I was off to Austin. I had a really lousy lunch at the California pizza kitchen at San Jose airport and then met Vikram, Mitesh and Suba in Austin 4 hours later. We had a DosXX beer at home and then went to Chuy’s, which is my favorite tex-mex place in the world.

http://www.chuys.com/

http://austin.citysearch.com/profile/10209969/

There was a 1 hour or 1:10 minutes wait at Chuy’s/ We waited patiently over two margaritas and baskets of tortilla chips with a jalapeno ranch dressing. After a long wait we ordered food. I decided to split of bowl of green chili stew, a Chuychanga and Chili rellenos with Mitesh. Mitesh did not like the food so I ate most of it. We came back home and slept.

Saturday Nov 4^th

We went out of breakfast to Café Mia on Bee cave’s road only to find out that it was closed. We ate a light breakfast at 10AM at a small place that I forget the name of. We thought that it was good that the food was not heavy, since it gave us an opportunity to eat lunch.

I met Luiz right outside the café. I got in his car and we drove to Barton creek mall so that we could walk around and talk. It was good to see him after such a long time. He now has two kids. David and I forget the name of his 4 week old boy. He has not gone back to Brazil in 6 years and was planning a vacation to Australia so that he could meet with his brother.

We said goodbye. I shopped a little bit and then met up with Billi, Vikram and Suba. We then drove back to Vikram’s nice new house. We watched NCAA football throughout the afternoon. Mitesh was busy trying to set up his office mail so that he could access it over his new phone. Finally, I was able to get Vikram to break away from his TV so that we could go to a driving range. Suba slept with Poppy while Billi, Vikram and I went to the driving range. 80 balls for $9 seemed cheap. We took two clubs each and tried our hand at driving. It was fun. Vikram was doing really well before he broke his 8 iron club. We were concerned that it would cost us a lot of money to replace it. But, the driving range guy let us go and had a laugh with us. We went back home, had a beer and then left for dinner.

We went to dona Amelias for dinner. This Brazilian place is Vikram and Subba’s favorite. I had a stuffed chicken breast with goat cheese and chorizo. It was ok. I was not impressed with the place. However, Mitesh and everyone else was. So, I kept quiet. We had a caipirinha each.

We decided that we really wanted to have a Mexican martini at Trudy’s. At least I did. Vikram did not want to miss the Texas A&M game so he dropped Billi and I off at Trudy’s south star. It seemed too early after diinner to eat, so we walked over the toys R’us so that I could get some toys for the kids. Billi and I bought a bunch of stuff and then came back to Trudy’s for a drink. It was packed but we got a table and the bar and wisely decided to split their Mexican martini. It was too much.

Mitesh got pissed off when I asked him to share a fried avocado stuffed with cheese and chicken. He could not believe that we were eating this much. Anyhow, we drank and then Vikram came and picked us up.

Sunday Nov 5^th

The next morning Vikram, Billi and I want to pick up Suba after she had finished the race for cure downtown. We decided to have breakfast at Trudy’s south star, which turned out to be a good idea. Suba and I ordered the Chilaquiles. They were yummy. We finished brunch at 12PM. We then went to Vikram’s home.

We left to drop Mitesh at the airport. I also checked in my bags because I was not sure how much time I would have to come back to the airport after having dinner at Joe’s new place. He now own’s a mansion. It is fantastic new house off of 183N and Anderson mill road. Jennifer was nice enough to make some fajitas for us. We enjoyed the meal and spoke at length about old time and new. Bert could not join us.

Joe’s kids are amazingly well behaved. Joe decided to drop me back to the airport. It was really nice of him. He has always been good to me.

Imagine my surprise when I get to the airport at 6. I was through customs by 6:15 and saw a Mangia pizza outlet at the airport. I could resist myself and had a slice of their spinach stuffed crust pizza. It was excellent. Just as good as I remember. I am stuffed full, while I am tying this. I still have a green chili burrito in bag. I got it to go from Chuys this afternoon on the way to Joe’s place. I don’t think I will be able to eat it tonight. I should not. But, then again, will I be able to control myself….? Only time will tell.

Monday Nov 6^th

I had the burrito for breakfast. It was pure bliss. I ate all of it. Now my room smells of deluxe tomatilla and green chili sauce. Fantastic, Fantastic. I had enough time to drop my bag at Adobe and go to Valley fair mall so that I could shop for Ketaki and kids. I bought a lot of books from borders and clothes for Ketaki from Gap. I did not really find anything for me. I then drove back to Adobe because I was out of time and had to meet with John and Lori for lunch.

I had lunch with John and Lori from Dolby. They were nice enough to come down to San Jose for lunch. We ate at McCormick and Schmicks. I had the grilled veggie sandwich. The break was really dry but the fries were excellent. I was truly full from the burrito in the morning but ate anyway. It was fun to chat about Dolby stuff and John’s incomplete MBA. Lori was engaging and funny as ever. Mike and I had dinner in downtown San Jose. We decided to go to place Mike likes. They had decent enchiladas but had lost their liquor license so we had a beer at the pub across the street and then walked over for dinner. I then drove to valley fair mall again to buy some books I could not get earlier.

After buying the books, I went to the safeway to buy sour cream and goat cheese and wine. I am glad I did not postpone this for tomorrow. My rental car was full of stuff. I thought that I would not be able to fit it all into my suitcase and bags. Somehow, I did.

Tuesday Nov 7^th

I got a call from Ketaki at 7AM. We talked and then I started preparing for my 8AM meeting with Jim. I was about to leave when I got a call from Ketaki telling me that there was no way that I could return home in time for Anay’s 1^st birthday as I was only planning to leave the US on Wedensday morning and somehow thought that I would get to Delhi by 9:30PM on Wednesday! How stupid. I almost panicked. I hurriedly said good bye to Ketaki and called American airlines. They were able to book me on the flight out to Delhi Tuesday evening from Chicago. I had a flight to catch in 3.5 hours from San Jose airport.

I cancelled all my meetings and checked out of the hotel. I dropped of the rental car, paid the change fee for the ticket and checked in to my flight from SJC-> ORD. I was well in time for my ORD-DEL direct flight but decided to have a chicken burger at McDonalds because I was hungry and thought I had time. I could not find a Wolfgang puck express, I really like these restaurants at the airports. Anyhow, I ate the burger and fries and walked over to my gate to board the flight. To my horror, the flight had boarded and the gate had been closed. My luggage had been removed from the plane. I was completely grief struck. I could only blame by gluttony as I saw the plane backing out and the boarding ramp retracting.

The agent at the gate told me to rebook my ticket using one of the red phones located at gate 10A. While running to the gate I saw a flight boarding to London. I waited in line at this gate (10) to see if they could rebook me at the gate. I waited for 10 minutes as there were people ahead of me. I was really jumpy at that time. A couple in front of me told me to calm down. I did.

The agent at this gate told me that there was nothing she could do. I would have to rebook using one of the red phones at gate 10A. I ran over to 10A and picked up the wrong red phone. Nothing seemed to be working. I when I tried to dial AA from this phone the call would not go through. I then asked someone if they knew where the red phones were. A nice gentleman pointed me to the row of phones right at gate 10A. I picked up one of these phones and spoke to an agent over the phone.

She was nice. She told me that I was already rebooked to a flight to LHR and then LHR->Delhi. The ORD-LHR flight would leave at 11:30PM and get into LHR at 1PM. The LHR-Delhi flight would leave at 3PM from LHR and get me to Delhi at 5AM on Thursday the 9^th of November, in time for Anay’s birthday.

It was only now that I could relax. AA has saved me.

I think I hate LHR. There are no moving walkways. You have to walk forever to connect to your flight. At least I did. I landed at terminal D and I had to go to terminal A to board my flight. I took a shuttle between the terminals. Once at the terminal, I walked for atleast 20 minutes before I could get to my flight.

A Hinjew and Two Yankees

Two Yankees in the AA club lounge.



To my surprise, I found myself in the American Airlines club at the Delhi airport. somehow a call from someone I know got me incredible, unexpectedly good service from American Airlines. This girl, Lakhwinder, too really good care of me. She got me checked in 5 minutes and gave me a pass to the business club. The regular economy check in line was really long. I was happy I got someone to make that call.



I thought it would end there but it did not. Lakhwinder, filled out my embarkation card and got me through the emigration line in a jiffy and then took me to the club :). She said that she would come by at 11:45 to get me. I told her that I will be ok by myself from then on but she did not agree (thankfully, as I later found out.)



I met two guys at the club lounge. They were really friendly and had a blast during there first business trip to India. They went to Trichy and bangalore and spent a day in India. They had the following questions for me:



1. Why is there a bucket and hose in all indian toilets? How do indian people clean themselves after a shit :)

2. What is it mean when folks nod their heads side to side in response to a question.

3. Whats up with the aggressive beggars?



It was fun to speak with them over a beer. They seem genuinely interested in India and seemed to be awed by what they saw in this visit. They were amazed that their liaison for a $10M sale of equipment to BHEL was able to get BHEL to tell them the quotes submitted by their competitors. This is confidential information, which is not suppossed to be shared with anyone. Anyhow, they were amazed that business was done this way in India.



We exchanged business cards and then went our separate ways.



Lakhwinder came to get me. She got me through security in 1 minute (broke the line again) and then through the gate straight to the airport. It was really cool. I was the 3rd person in the plane. :) This has never happened to me before.



Toby, the hin-jew:



I sat next to a really intereting 53 year old woman on the flight from Delhi to Chicago on the 29th of October. She said she really likes India and considers herself a Hinjew :). She was a Iyengar yoga instructor and had been in India for the last 6 weeks.



We spoke at length about India's contradictions. How we claim to be fair and treat our servants at way less than par. How, our politicians never let India realize its potential. We also spoke about her wanting to kill her neighbor (living next to the apartment she rented in Pune). This neighbor had 6 dogs and the dogs kept waking her up in the morning. She eventually slept with her ears plugged.



We also spoke about how Indian women dont take care of themselves after certain age and are all generally overweight by the time they are 35. She said she could not understand how indian women, wearing sarees are able to go to the indian style bathrooms. :) Inspite of everything, she loved india and has over the last 10 years been here 5 times. I found out that she a has her own studio in Santa Barbara and that she was divorced. She was really fit for her age. I think she is as old as my mom but remarkably fit.



The flight was really noisy. There was this irritating mom, who could not discipline her kids at all. The kids kept shouting. The boy would not sit down. Even during landing, the kid did not wear a seatbelt and her mom was ok with it. All the air hostesses were completely infuriated. In fact, one of the air hostesses from the business class came back and asked her to discipline her kids properly.





Also, I ran in to Eena and Sudhi in the plane. They were also heading back home to redwood city.

powered by performancing firefox

Palampur July 29th-August 5th

Palampur July 29th- August 5th

What a horrible trip in such a lovely part of India.

 

We took Jammu Mail from Old Delhi railway station on Saturday night. My classes got over at 7:45PM. We had thought that the train was from Nizammudin or New Delhi and had decided to stay at Bharti Nagar. This turned out to be a really bad move, when at 8PM, we found that the train will leave from old Delhi at 9:10PM. Ketaki was dead tired from packing and preparing for the trip and feeding the babies and everything else.

 

We drove from Bharti Nagar to Chandni Chowk and were doing well on time until we entered the road towards the train station from Kauriya Pul. We were stuck in a jam for 10 minutes and reached the station at 9:10PM. We then took a coolie and ran to platform 1A, which was the farthest from where we were. Somehow we boarded the train.

 

After much coaxing, Anya agreed to climb on top of the top birth
and had a fitful sleep. We found out that we will have to take a taxi from PAthankot to Palampur (1350/- 4 hrs of terrible time)

 

Pathankot and Palampur were both hot. we had packed wollens. Silly us. We enjoyed as much as we could before Anya fell ill. Anay was also getting clobberred amongst all the other kids in the household. Anya had 103.5F fever by the time we returned from McLeod Ganj.

 

The McLoed Ganj drive was ok but it kept raining and we could not do much. Ketaki and I had an umbrella and a kid and bags in our hands. We ate; Had ordered too much, as usual. We were really surprized to find Gnocchi and pastas and tibettan soups on the menu for cheap. Rs. 50/- each.

 

Coming back from McLeod Ganj, we had to rush to a doctor so that Anya could be diagnosed. We had to give her Nimuselid at 11PM to get rid of her fever. It was then, when we decided that we are not going on any more vacation with both the kids unless they are bigger and more independent.

 

We were happy to get out of Palampur on Friday. The taxi (Maruti van) took only 2.5 hrs to bring us back. I would have puked had he taken longet to bring us back. And, then there was the incident of the watch and the banana at the station, etc.

Memorable meals

In Delhi:
Dinner with Barry at Dum Phukt
Park Baluchi's besan ki sabzi.
Thai at the Thai Wok
Draft Beer and food from the menu at Dilli O Dilli (IHC).
Chacha ke cholle bhature
Lunch w/ Ketaki at the Chinese room.
Chinese dinners w/ family at the monastry.
Snacks & Cakes at the monastry close to FORE.

In Austin (Aug 1998-May 2000)
Ski Shores Café
Mexican Martini and lovely ladies at Trudy's
Tex-Mex at Chuy's
Deluxe Tomatilla sauce
Green Chile Soup
Green Chile Sauce
Best ever Chille Relleno
Big as yo' face Burrito
Chuychanga
Long wait over 'ritas and chips
Delaware Sub Shop's tasty subs

In Italy: Feb 2002
Pizza in Venezia
Breakfast Café and lunch sandwiches everywhere.
Sun Dried Tomatoes in Vernazza (Eu. 19.99/kg)
Fresh bread in Siena
Funghi Pasta in Siena - our hotel behind the Palio
Gelato in Venice, Siena, Vernazza, Roma.

In Amsterdam: Mar 2002
Fries w/ Mayo of various kinds
Thai food close to the Centraal Station

In California (May 2000-Jun 2003)
Scrambled Eggs and home fries at Chloe's
Zachary's Roasted Pepper Pizza. $20/medium pizza
Pizza Inferno's Goat Cheese and Walnut pizza $8.99
Crepes at Ti Couz and Squat and Gobble
Mint Julep in a bar close to the mint on Market st.
Injara's at Masawa on Haight St.
Thai at King of Thai Noodle house(es).
Deserts at st. Orres (on the way to Mendocino)
Breakfast burrito at the Yosemite Lodge w/ K Mom
Il Fornaio - Carmel, San Jose
Ghirardelli Sq - ice creams

In Japan: April 02, 05
Meals w/ Dolby folks in unnamed restaurants in the Ginza
Nouvelle Japanese dinner w/ John, Aya, Shino at .....
Dinner with Larry Schindel - trying to order vegetarian food from the menu
Okonomiyaki lunch w/ Larry in Nara
Ketaki's Japanese breakfasts in Osaka.

In Hawaii: Nov 02
Maggi and "tasty bites" in the Haleakala crater

In Brazil: Feb-Mar 03
Aracaje?
Fish - fresh from the amazon
Sandwiches - customized to our hearts desire in Recife.
Cachaca in Ilha Grande

In Spain: June 04
Tony's restaurant in Madrid - great gazpacho and tapas
More Madrid tapas
Gaspacho and tapas at Arcos de la frontera
Hot Chocolate and .... In Madrid - late at night
Hot bread and succulent chicken close to Pego

In France: June-July 04
Falafel in Paris - Jewish Quarter
Ketaki's salad and cheese sandwiches
Picnic lunch during the long canoe ride in Baynac-Sarlat.
Ratatouille at Domme - weekly market

In UK:
Bean burgers everywhere
Eat out at Isle of Skye
Cooking Chicken with Reddy and Chaitanya
High Tea at the Balmoral, Edinburgh
Chachi's Mustard Chicken Pasta
"Do you want a drink? Have something to drink" - everywhere.
Chinese at Wagamama, London

In Seattle (off and on)
Jai Thai

--Anubhav