America - visit

I want to highlight my impressions about US through various sub-topics.

Infrastructure. I knew about the advance infrastructure the country has but to see it for real is a good experience. Indians living in US have always mentioned about the high standard of living and now I could understand why. The road & transport, shopping areas and mostly airports are very systematic. In Cleveland, while on road the cab driver told me about the walls being built across the length of the road (free way). I saw continuous iron pillars and then saw wall being constructed. The completed wall structure was being mounted on these pillars. The purpose of these walls was to provide for noise insulation for residents living on either side of the road. The material used for these walls was specially made to serve this purpose after a lot of research. The price - 1 million US$ for 1 mile (one side) of road. The project was also hauled to provide major boost to the economy during recession along with providing employment. Thanks to my erudite cab driver for the above knowledge. He also joked that he hoped the construction of those wall material and iron rod was happening in US and not outsourced to China.
As part of infrastructure, airports were very good. Mostly big and very well organized.

Television. I could see most of comedy serials I see at Home and saw few early episodes which would be viewable back home a month later. There is a lot of local city content in the TV programs, especially news channel and within this weather. Back in India, I have never given much thought to weather related news. It could be either because of wrong forecast or may be because of the fact that it has little impact on lifestyle. But I understood its relevance in western country when life is impacted because of it. It makes a difference if it is windy, snowing or sunny. I was tested with a different unit for temperature measurement, i.e. Fahrenheit. I had to recall my school days to remember that 0 Celsius is 32 Fahrenheit. For locals, use of Fahrenheit is so obvious that they seldom use it. Although I do not remember the inception of different measurement for temperature, I could make some sense of use of Fahrenheit in US- since temperature is mostly below freezing in winter, if we use Celsius then people have to preclude temperature with the word 'minus', whereas in Fahrenheit it would normally be straight away degree (it would be seldom be minus in Fahrenheit). This would save that extra millisecond in speaking. And psychologically you are still positive. Another big use of watching the weather channel is that it's very good topic for conversation. Everybody right from cab driver to professional would be able to tell you the measure of snow fall in inches expected this year.
I have never understood why people across globe cannot use a common unit of measurement. Why is it still mile and gallons and not KM and litres?
Another thing I want to highlight is the quality of advertisement on television. It is not good. Now I understand why many Indian ads are getting critically acclaimed international awards.

Culture. My earlier notion of US was through many movies (both Hollywood and Bollywood) which I had seen. Most of the setting would be in New York (Like most Hindi movie earlier were Mumbai based), where Statue of Liberty would be shown as sign of coming to US, swearing cab driver were mostly Asians and city would be buzzling with people. But my arrival in US was in Atlanta, none of the cab drivers were swearing or Asians and I did not see a lot of people on streets. On the other hand couple of cab drivers were very learned and provided me a lot of information to write this blog and also knew about India (IT, Mukesh Ambani Antilla, Goa, etc).

Brand Division: It seems that big brands in US have divided their geography. We have heard of Mafia gangs dividing their area of operation. Similarly cola major seem to have divided their areas. In Atlanta it was all Coke, which is understood as Coca Cola is headquartered here. But it was surprising to not find any Pepsi available anywhere, be it in shops, restaurants or airport. Cleveland was all about Pepsi and no Coke. Same way in news channel, it was all CNN in Atlanta (again headquartered here) and no Fox. Also CNN people were highlighting quite openly that Fox is favoring the Republican party and are not impartial as news channel should be. i guess the war is in the open.

Currency: For a long time recent times, Dollar has been the most powerful currency in the world. In the last decade Euro had strengthened as an alternate global currency while Dollar had a tough time due to the financial crisis. But recently with few Euro economy facing a very hard economic times, dollar once again is looking as favorite. My experience handing dollar has not been that good. And the reason for this is that all denominations look same in both color and size. If you look at Indian Rupee higher the denomination (moving up from Rs 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000) size of the note increases. Color is also different. The same is true with Euro. Or may be it is simply familiarity. Here even if I do not have a look at the numbers on the currency note, I know what value it is. I remember when the new Rs 500 note was introduced, one common advice from others was to be look carefully while giving someone Rs 100 note as the new Rs 500 note appeared similar. During this time Rs 500 mattered a lot and not many of us were used to carry it in our wallet as daily expense.
Imagine the same situation (at least for me) while handling Dollars. Their size and overall color is same whether it is $1, 5, 20 or 100. The only way to differentiate them is look at the actual digits or to remember past US Presidents in order of currency denomination, i.e. Washington, Lincoln, Jackson or Franklin. In the Oscar winning movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' there was a questions in the movie plot where Anil Kapoor asks the question - Which US President face appears on a specific US dollar denomination? Luckily the hero had seen and remembered that currency. But for me, it would take few more visits to US to become familiar.
I had a even more difficult time understanding the coins. Once I was buying something and when the lady asked for money, I started counting the coins and because of the unfamiliarity, started fumbling with the coins. The lady over the counter, politely offered to help me count. She must have thought I was mentally slow. The engineer and MBA in me felt so ashamed :(

America - Arriving

My first trip to US. I had heard a lots of story about arriving in US. I was told that since I would be entering US for the 1st time, it was most certain that I would be stopped by the officials and interrogated. Apart from other things, it was told that I should know the exact count of all things packed in my bags. For this my wife had helped my prepare a 'chutka' (similar to the one which one uses in exam cheating). I had religiously kept this in my cabin baggage and actually revised it constantly, so that my answers during the imminent interrogation seems natural. Also I was arriving during the busiest travel season which was the week of thanksgiving. During my stay in hotel in Europe, reports in TV news channels (only TV channels I could understand were English news) were showing the new security checking at US airports which included some sophisticated x-ray and not so sophisticated manual body frisking. (Incidentally the week I was back home, Indian ambassador to US had to undergo similar scrutiny mostly because she was wearing a sari. This became a major diplomatic news issue). 

As you can understand, I was apprehensive arriving in US. But my experience couldn't have been more contrasting. Not only while arriving but during my other trips inside the country and return, I never had to undergo the body frisking. I had to open my shoes for security check, but I guess this is becoming more of a practice across all airports. And my preparation with my 'chutka' did not come to use. Actually I was disappointed. This was a similar feeling when you would have prepared extensively for a guaranteed questions  and then it does not come in the exam, even though the exam had went well!

I traveled to Atlanta, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Memphis (transit) and then back to Atlanta. I could not see much around the city, primarily because I was constantly traveling and secondly it was very cold. Except Atlanta, where I had stayed over the weekend and also since my college friend was there I could see few parts of the city. So my impressions of US is mostly based on time I had spent in the airport (which was a lot) and TV viewing in hotels. 

More about it in my next post.

Brussels

Who would have thought that I would come to Belgium one day!
I knew about Belgium through the comic books which I had read when young including Tintin & Astrix. But that was about it. Recently I knew about it as this is the capital of European Union.
The city appears to be a mixture of different things. It has older looking building along with new skyscrapers. Upon talking to few people from this place I found out that it has a mixture of population comprising of those speaking French and those speaking Dutch.
If you are ever in this part of the world, do try to eat fish. I had salmon and shrimps which were fabulous. Belgium is also famous for its chocolates. We went to a very expensive store and tried one dark chocolate. It was the best one I have ever had. There were a lot of variety and especially because of holiday season lot of gift packs were available. There were chocolate with alcohol !
Traffic seems more Indian with people changing lanes with ease and also people to blow horn.
The appearance of people of Belgium is different. To be politically correct, most of them look like characters from the comic books.
Brussels was the last stop of my European trip from here I went to US. This wold be my first time in America. More in my next post.

Paris

I have been in Paris before. But the situation cannot be more contrasting. Earlier I was here for pleasure (with my wife), during summer and had roamed about the city. This time I came here for Business, during winter and saw Paris only through train/metro. So my observations are restricted to my time in train.

The 1st thing which would strike you here is the diversity. There are people from all ethnicity, in all kind of clothes, of all shape & sizes. And it is beautiful.

The metro here is vast. We got down at Paris Nord (North) and it has multi levels of metro line. It is Dadar of Mumbai (as I have been told, since I am neither an expert of Mumbai nor Paris trains). The vastness of the place becomes evident especially since I was carrying heavy suitcase and like most Indians, we pack heavily. I miss the friendly 'Coolie' (A profession made famous by Amitabh Bachchan) we find in North Indian railway stations.

I found some similarities between Indian and Paris trains. In Paris one person came in the compartment and left small piece of paper on our seats and then came back expecting some donations. If you have traveled in trains around Kolkata, you would have seen fellow dressed in all orange coming inside the compartment and doing the same. I did not give any donation because of the same reasons. I do not understand French & Benagli writings :).

Secondly I saw one lady coming in the compartment and singing. May be because of the upcoming holidays and she too asked for donations. This I am sure all of us who have traveled in Indian Railway have experienced.

I had heard of French people frowning on English language, but I saw things changing. There was a poster ad in the train which advertised learning street English. Again I couldn't help the Indian comparison. Be it Kapil Dev promoting Rapidex courses or posters all over Indian tier 1&2 cities advertising skills for call center jobs.

Talk about 'taking an Indian out of India, but you cannot take India out of Indian'. Hmm, sounds too cliche.

Anyway after less than 24 hrs in Paris, I was off to Brussels in train this time in TRV.

Crossed Lille Europe station, which is a tourist destination. One of the wall of the platform was completely painted. My understanding of Lille Europe is that it would a mini Europe with streets and shops. Wish to come back here later. One more thing about this station. Our train change directions here. It reminded me of 'Mugalsarai' and 'Gaya' station. You would have been here if you have traveled to north India from east. The trains here sometime change directions, with engine from head going to tail.

And so my Paris trip ended. I would talk about Brussels in my next blog.

Amsterdam visit

Hi World,
I have not written a blog earlier. But thought of starting one today. Reasons include available waiting time and content to write about & during my travel. And today looks as good a day as any.
To set the context I am currently on a 2 week business trip to few places in Europe and in US. I am accompanied by my colleagues who has been to these places earlier and is a very good guide. I am staying in most of the places for a day and may not have adequate time and information to form a judgement about the places I am in. But I have some observations which I would like to share with all of you.

I started on Nov 22nd from Mumbai. First time in Swiss airline and experience in the flight from Mumbai to Zurich was good. Good service, individual monitor with multiple program option even in economy and good leg space made the trip comfortable. Due to some delay, had to rush through Zurich airport to catch the connecting flight to Amsterdam. Hope to get a glimpse of Zurich airport while returning and also some time in future when I wish to visit Switzerland.

Amsterdam. My first stop. Apart from other popular attractions, this city is known as city of canals. (Some day in future I want to visit Venice and compare the water based communication). I went for a stroll in the evening as we had some time. Weather was cold, but not yet chilly. We walked through various roads, crossing many canals. I was not able to see tulips which flowers during summer, but saw tulip bulbs being sold at few places. People on the street were very lively. Many seemed to be tourists. Lots of people were on cycles. I appreciate the initiatives by most of the European countries to promote cycling. They have dedicated lanes, numerous parking & locking places and also easy loading in trams & trains.
Another things which impressed me and is different from other European cities, is that this city in English language friendly. Most of the shops had English names and streets and directions were also understandable.
Every European city has a main street where people gather for any celebration and this is a place for shopping. The same in Amsterdam is Dam Square. This had a tall pillar like structure (couldn't figure out the significance) and streets in various directions. We had hot french fries with mayonnaise sauce (local speciality) along with chilled Heineken beer. Cold weather, hot fries, cold beer - neat combination.
In the late evening, while we were looking for place to eat, we saw few kids ice skating. I had seen this on TV earlier and to watch live, the balance and speed live is fun.
Next day after our meeting, we headed to Amsterdam Central station to catch a train to Paris. While sitting in the back of the taxi, I observed that people are following traffic rules quite well.
We took the train Thyrsus. It s fast train (300 kmph) and modern with wi-fi connection available. We crossed Antwerp, Brussels (we came here later) & Hague. It is a multi country train where we passed through Netherlands, Belgium and France. Thanks to Schengen visa, traveling across Europe has become very convenient.
Being an optimistic I dream of a world where traveling across the whole globe becomes that easy, with borders becoming more a line on the maps rather than division created by us. Reminds me of a line from a poem I read in school - 'Good Fences make Good Neighbours', taken from Mending Walls by Robert Frost. Getting philosophical!
Hmm. I think this a long enough post for 1st post. Let me stop now. My flight is after an hour, but let me move about the Minneapolis airport to observe some more so that I can come later and blog about it.
In my next blog I would continue writing about my onward journey.