Friday, April 09, 2004
A relaxed day at long last and my addled brain queries--what is that ??
I have been a rivetting troubadour less the ballads and hopefully the aerial soujourns are past me.
Have done Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Bhopal and Pune over the last week in my humble attempt to familiarise obdurate denizens of the organization with the new-improved Medical Policy.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single misstep--almost missed the Air Sahara boat to AHD on Day One, my maiden Sahara voyage. A cramped craft ,if ever there was one, making me wince wistfully at my slender co-passengers. Learnt the much-vaunted air bid-n-buy auction procedure, a welcome departure narrowly missing to win the camera that I was eyeing. A bolt from the blue when the First Flight Officer, or whetever, announced helpfully when I was clambering out of my reverie, that we were about to reach Hyderabad. That I was not hallucinating was ratified by the pallid visages of my co-sufferers. Mercifully, landed at AHD and on time too.
Didn't see much of Modi's Medellin and left the same day, even more tired.
The Nagpur trip was similar except that the timings were even more arduous.
Spent the weekend imparting the same to the honest do-gooders at Mumbai and Monday and Tuesday at the vastly overrated Maurya Sheraton facilitating an Appraiser Skills workshop. Interestingly, some of my former cronies have come up with a variation--they say it should be called not Appraiser skills but Appraisers Kill !!!
Now Bhopal is a place where I have spent 2 years and fairly happy years at that--but the unearthly arrival and departure times coupled with the distance from where I was staying put paid to any noble intentions of catching up with my old buddies. It has worn some modern shreds but still the laidback lotus-eaters abound.
Had to undertake the climb to Pune by road, halted at the Food Village to tank up with kanda poha and sabudana vada, now that's been a long time coming !!The Pune office is a spanking new one somewhere in Dhole Patil Road. Also was filled to the gills with consternation as to how the hoary COEP had metamorphed to Pune Institute of E & T--appeared the same way, though with all the new-fangled ideas from the 14th century still carefully in place.
Just had the time to drop by home for my sister's b'day--again a low-cal meal of potato chips, cutlets, sandwiches and about 3 pastries washed down with some gallons of Coke ( or was it Pepsi) ensured that had met my dietary needs of about 6000 cal for the day.
India lost--great news for an inveterate Pak supporter. Sometime today the great LAP will battle the Japs. More about that later
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I have been a rivetting troubadour less the ballads and hopefully the aerial soujourns are past me.
Have done Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Bhopal and Pune over the last week in my humble attempt to familiarise obdurate denizens of the organization with the new-improved Medical Policy.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single misstep--almost missed the Air Sahara boat to AHD on Day One, my maiden Sahara voyage. A cramped craft ,if ever there was one, making me wince wistfully at my slender co-passengers. Learnt the much-vaunted air bid-n-buy auction procedure, a welcome departure narrowly missing to win the camera that I was eyeing. A bolt from the blue when the First Flight Officer, or whetever, announced helpfully when I was clambering out of my reverie, that we were about to reach Hyderabad. That I was not hallucinating was ratified by the pallid visages of my co-sufferers. Mercifully, landed at AHD and on time too.
Didn't see much of Modi's Medellin and left the same day, even more tired.
The Nagpur trip was similar except that the timings were even more arduous.
Spent the weekend imparting the same to the honest do-gooders at Mumbai and Monday and Tuesday at the vastly overrated Maurya Sheraton facilitating an Appraiser Skills workshop. Interestingly, some of my former cronies have come up with a variation--they say it should be called not Appraiser skills but Appraisers Kill !!!
Now Bhopal is a place where I have spent 2 years and fairly happy years at that--but the unearthly arrival and departure times coupled with the distance from where I was staying put paid to any noble intentions of catching up with my old buddies. It has worn some modern shreds but still the laidback lotus-eaters abound.
Had to undertake the climb to Pune by road, halted at the Food Village to tank up with kanda poha and sabudana vada, now that's been a long time coming !!The Pune office is a spanking new one somewhere in Dhole Patil Road. Also was filled to the gills with consternation as to how the hoary COEP had metamorphed to Pune Institute of E & T--appeared the same way, though with all the new-fangled ideas from the 14th century still carefully in place.
Just had the time to drop by home for my sister's b'day--again a low-cal meal of potato chips, cutlets, sandwiches and about 3 pastries washed down with some gallons of Coke ( or was it Pepsi) ensured that had met my dietary needs of about 6000 cal for the day.
India lost--great news for an inveterate Pak supporter. Sometime today the great LAP will battle the Japs. More about that later
