Too much time passed since my last post… but we are almost done with 2013.  So advanced Happy New Year to you all!!

December 30th marks 23 years since I first left India for US… time flies, but that date always will be a significant milestone for me.

So it is time for new year resolutions… mine is simple… I just want to be better than who I was in 2013… would keep reminding myself of that.

Here are a few highlights of 2013 (in random order) and see you all in 2014 with more regular posts.

• In December, we went to Maui, Hawaii, our first trip ver to Hawaii and met up our friends Sally Anne,  Peter, Todd & Emma Gillman from Australia.  It was a blast.
• Year 2013 was my busiest travel year ever – 170 K actual flying miles, 15 K more than last year.. and 2014 doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
• In July my cousin Raja & Family visited us from Japan for a few days and we met after 15 years…
• In May Lesli finally made her maiden voyage to California when we went to Bay area and visited my brother & family and met up my friend Subbu and Family visiting from India there..
• In November we lost one of our close family friends Mike Hunter to Cancer… he was just a month shy of 50 years.  The toughest part of this loss was that I didn’t get a chance to say proper goodbye.  When we went to Omaha, I ended up getting a fever and had to say goodbye from outside of his house front door.  I got a late start on Movember… and grew my facial hair for 4 weeks and a let a lot of people know that it was for Mike.  If you haven’t seen the final photo, here is a link to it on FB.  Mike will be missed dearly…
• Made 4 trips to India in 2013, during one of them in January met up with my friend Ruffin Beckwith who was on a world tour and spent some time visiting a few places in India. He posted his experiences in his blog, which actually inspired me to start writing also… You can read his entire experience at Ruffin on the Road.
• We had our yearly trip to Puerto Vallarta in March, Our Montana road trip in September.. Glacier National Park is still my favorite place to visit… it is breath taking.
• Can’t complain about work either… started Attune Digital with couple of long friends and colleagues Steve Wilen and Chris Tivey.   Currently working on opening a second development center in India in my hometown of Rajahmundry in March/April 2014.  It is going to be an exciting year ahead.

Hope every one is having a great holiday break. I have a lot to thankful for… health, family, friends and busy working schedule… what else can you ask for??

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

After a few blogs with a lot of “words” I decided to do a picture blog.

Two weeks ago I was in Montana for a week – during our trips to Glacier National Park and National Bison Range, ran into quite a bit of wildlife – some of it pretty close… Here are a few samples.

Mountain Goat… it is the official symbol on Glacier National Park… this one was busy grazing and checking out curious photographers…

You think it is a gopher or a squirrel… it was a Marmot… not afraid of people and freely wondering in Glacier National Park.

Hey, Leave me alone.. I am resting… this Deer buck didn’t get spooked and stayed in its place as we drove by it in National Bison Range.

Big Horn Sheep.. Glacier National Park… they were a little high up from the road… tough to spot.

Of Course Bison at National Bison Range… we seen a herd at a distance but not too many up close on our trip…

Antelope near the tail end of the National Bison Range drive… quite a few of them.. being guarded by this buck.

Osprey? Eagle? Couldn’t tell from the distance… nesting on the shores of Flathead Lake near Polson.

We also ran into quite a few other deer, saw a black bear at National Bison range, too far for a good picture, Grouse, more deer… amazing to see them in the wild…

Next up… pictures from Glacier and Flathead Lake… without Animals….

I haven’t posted a blog in a while.. I have been thinking about so many different topics… but didn’t get time to sit down and do it. In the last 2 months lots of things happening…

Now, I am part of a new company Attune Digital – with couple of other great partners Chris Tivey and Steve Wilen. The new company doesn’t have a website yet, but we will have one soon. We will be focusing on Digital Marketing and Technical services with new user engagement tools.. already off to a great start. We now have a new office in Scottsdale and I didn’t travel as much in the last month as I usually do. Nice change of pace. I will be mixing some of digital trends into my upcoming blogs.

So for today, I would share something that has been on my mind for a long time…

I have been going to Atlanta often for almost 6 years now.. There is a toll booth on GA-400 highway and depending on where I stayed, had to cross it at least few times every time I go. So… I have quite a few interesting stories about the toll booth.

It is 50 cents – takes change – about 7 lanes I think with 3 with cashiers and the others that take change only – they have huge baskets where you through coins and the lift gate opens when you throw 50 cents… the basket is huge and how difficult it could be??? Well… obviously it is not that easy. You drive up to the basket you will see a lot of coins on the pavement. And of course there is always one that gets to the exact change lane with not enough change… The drivers are very impatient – 50 cents in one hand and the other hand on the horn. If you take more than 10 seconds they don’t feel shy to honk the heck out of you 🙂

I was a victim once… I threw my two quarters with high precision right in the middle of the basket… it accepted it, but the lift gate won’t open… I started to sweat… 5… 10 seconds… and there they go… honking as if I messed up their day… I had to yell out to the cashier in the next lane and finally after 30 seconds someone comes and tries the lift gate and it won’t open… they finally bypass and lift it manually… 60 seconds into the ordeal… I felt the heat… from people behind me… some probably cursing me that I broke it by putting wrong coins or what not.. so it was a lot of “pressure”.

One time, I was in the “Cashier” lane, since I didn’t have enough coins… it was late evening not much traffic… then of course, the lady in front of me “in the cashier lane” is STUCK!! She was in a nice Lexus.. didn’t have any cash on her and tried to give her credit card to cashier… of course they don’t accept credit card… so here she was… going through purse, center console… after 1 minute, I gestured to the cashier that I will take care of her.. when I finally got to the the booth, I was told that she was able to muster about 30 cents from loose change 🙂 Gosh.. talk about not having enough change on you…

So over years.. I made sure I plan my toll passing… rush hour opt for Cashier lane… other time try to have enough quarters… It is amazing something as small as 50 cents can have such an impact on you….

I recently heard that by end of this year, the toll booth will be removed finally.. what a relief… 🙂

Here is the link to GA 400 Toll Site

Have a great Labor Day weekend folks!!!

Do you take the Shampoo and Conditioners in the hotel rooms?  Well I do… and I call that project as “Toiletries to the Rescue”.

Lesli works as a volunteer at Phoenix Rescue Mission, 4 days a week, which is about 32.5 miles from our house in Scottsdale each way… she has been doing this for more than 12 years (except for the 2 1/2 years in Florida, where it was City Rescue Mission).  I tried to volunteer there a few times, and figured out that I can’t… since I tried to get too much involved.  But I do see an occasional homeless person wearing one of my shirts… at least that is where my mission clothes make it to 🙂

Lesli did a few food drives for the Rescue mission.  She called it Food to the Rescue and we also did a water bottle drive in 2007 and got over 10 K bottles of water for that summer. One time I went to the Rescue mission a few years ago and noticed that they had places for visitors to clean up and shower at the Rescue Mission and had small soaps and shampoo bottles available (although just a few).  Since then, I started collecting these toiletries when I travel and after we get a bag full of those, Lesli takes them to the Rescue Mission.  Since I take my own shampoo and conditioner while I travel, most of the ones I get are not opened.  Last year I had more than 120 hotel nights… so I hauled in a lot of these suckers!!

Since I have been staying at Starwood properties like Westin, Sheraton, etc.  some of these samples are really nice and I can’t stop smiling, thinking about the people walking out of the Rescue Mission showers smelling fresh like a Westin…

Do a favor and collect these on your travels and donate them to the nearest homeless shelter… they come in quite handy.

The first time I made it to Canada was in April 2012.  I arrived late (11 p.m.) from Phoenix in Toronto visiting colleagues for 3 days of business meetings… I was excited to finally visit another new country and went through Immigration… after initial questions at the first desk, the officer asked me to go a secondary room for further questioning.  We were originally going to play golf in Toronto but the weather turned cold and it was going to snow, so I didn’t take my golf clubs.  I thought the officer got suspicious that I said that it was going to be a golf trip and hence the secondary screening.  After about 20 minutes of wait finally an officer started talking to me… he asked me to show my reservation for the hotel, what I did, phone number of my friend, etc.  I found the questioning a little harsh and finally he let me through… I didn’t expect going to Canada with a US passport was going to be this hard…

Second time.. to Vancouver in June 2012.  My colleagues were waiting outside of terminal  to pick me and go up to Whistler… I got through first check quickly and texted them that I am almost out… then the guy at the exit looked at my form and said I have to go to the extended screening room… arrrggh!!! There were about 10 people waiting and 2 officers.. about 30 minutes wait and finally same routine, what do I do, why am I here, etc. etc.  I got out finally 45 minutes after picking up my luggage.  I started to get a feeling that Canada doesn’t like me….

Third time… Jan 2nd 2013… Rinse and Repeat, go to the extended screening room – it was a busy day or travel and the extended screening room was packed… luckily after 20 minutes an officer looked though line and picked up a few passports based on the “code” behind our forms and stamped my passport and let us out 10 minutes later.  Now this is getting annoying…

Finally in Feb 2013… during the extended screening.. there was not many people, the officer asked me when did I get my US passport… I told him 2002.  Then he asked me what did I do in 2006.  I said 2006?  Nothing… then he looked at something and said… actually 1996.  Were you denied entry into Canada? Then it struck me… rewind back 17 years…

In 1996 for our 1st wedding anniversary Lesli and I went to Montana and to Glacier National Park.  On 2nd day of our trip, driving through the park, we came to the US/Canada border and I thought we could get to the Canadian side of park without any issues… Then we were stopped at the border.  Luckily I had my passport in my bag which was from India then and not even a green card.  The officer told us that we can’t go through and he will not press the issue if we turned around without insisting to cross the border.  Well, we turned around and took a picture at the “Welcome to Canada” sign and drove back to hotel.  I guess he did scan my passport into system and put status “Denied Entry”.  I guess that still exists in the system no matter what passport I use now.

So the officer explained to me that since I was denied entry in 1996, my name is “tagged”… so every time they swipe my passport at the entry point it pops-up that message and they send me to secondary screening, since the details are not available at the entry desk.  So they have to make sure the denial was nothing serious each and every time… no matter how many times I come in and go.  So I asked him, if it is ever going to be cleared and he said “No, it is forever”… nothing I can do about it.

There you go.. I am permanently tagged by Canadian Immigration and have to go through secondary screening each and every time…  So this week when I came to Vancouver I told the officer at entry “secondary screening required” because of 1996… he smiled and obliged to my request.

Now I am getting to know the officers in secondary screening area in Vancouver… pretty soon we will be greeting each other on first name basis… who knows??

I was looking forward to writing this blog… my first time outside of Amsterdam Airport…

I been through Amsterdam airport about 18 times now, since Delta started going through there with acquisition of Northwest.  I had layovers anywhere from 1 to 4 hours… and  I heard you need good 5-6 hours to venture out of airport and see places.  On my recent trip, I had a 6 hour layover coming back from India, so I decided to give it a try.

I researched a bit on what you can do in 5 hours and there were quite a few helpful blogs/articles.  I wanted to get a “feel” for the place before venturing out on my own, or even spend a day or two there.  So I checked out the tour details at the kiosk inside of airport…. 45 Euros – for a 2.5 hours tour.  Reviews said, these tour guys will back in time and won’t miss your flight… found out that their first tour leaves at 8:30 a.m. and since my flight was going to arrive at 7:30 a.m. from Mumbai, I was going to have plenty of time…

As it turns out the flight from Mumbai was 45 minutes late and we landed around 8:15 a.m. – I got out of the plane and rushed to the tour counter and the board said next tour is at noon… since it was 8:31 a.m. The lady behind the counter was apologetic, and I thought my lost my opportunity this time, and started wondering if I should go out on my own… then she called the driver and said they haven’t left the airport yet, and we can run down if I wanted to go… I said Yeah, and she confirmed my passport was US and we started our speed walk to the tour van.  I had to clear immigration and it was a breeze and within 10 minutes we were at the curbside and I jumped in to the waiting bus.  The 5 people already on the van were a little agitated due to the wait and one of them even said if he missed his flight, he is going to fine me… later we all became good buddies 🙂

So here we go…

My primary purpose of the tour is to experience what life is like in Amsterdam.  I know a lot of people want to go there to “cure their Glaucoma”, or peek through windows of Red Light district.. both of those were not on my agenda… I have been to about 15 countries so far… and it is amazing how many things are “common” between all humanity…

Our van driver was quite good in English and funny… I was still trying to wake myself up and get into a groove… of course, there is a “talker” on the bus who started asking all kinds of questions… good thing, he was asking what I was thinking of asking.. about elevation, people, taxes, transportation, etc.  When I heard their tax rate (VAT or something) is 21% I realized what we had is not bad after all.  The tour was going be mostly driving around with only a couple of stops… I was ok with that… but, our first stop was a Cheese Factory… Come on… after all this time, you are not going to show me weed or red light district first… Cheese Factory?  I guess it is a popular stop since there were other tour buses there.  I didn’t take any pictures of the people trying to explain how they make cheese and wooden shoes, I want to get on with the tour.. but we end up spending almost 25 minutes there walking through gift shop… I know better not to buy any “crap” that Lesli will throw away.

Back on bus, we started going through backroads and next popular spot was the windmill.

I guess this is a big photo op… the driver/guide offered everyone to take their picture in “reflection.  I did the best I could with my iPhone and also tried to get the flowers and water… but not the same without full gear.

Almost an hour into our trip, I was starting to get antsy… we only have 1.5 hours left and one of the fellow passengers wants to be back by 11 to catch his flight.  We convinced him that he can still catch his flight if we return by 11:30, so we can squeeze every minute out of the trip.

When we finally reached the city, I can see the real beauty and appeal of it.  The whole city is full of canals and roads on each side, narrow, barely enough to fit one car and no matter how many turns we took, there was always another canal in that direction.  After a few minutes, I lost track of what is where and just started enjoying the scenery.  Yes, we drove through the street with “Red windows”.. even that early in the day there were girls sitting in chairs behind it…

The buildings (including the RijksMuseum) were outstanding… most of the building sidelining street are almost same height, stacked next to each other and tiny.  BTW, we saw the world’s smallest apartment/hotels – just one window wide and 3 floors high.  Of course there are a lot (I mean a lot) of coffee shops with brownies, but also neat roadside cafes, restaurants, boutique shops… I am sure you can spend days enjoying food and window shopping here.

Then we came across this world’s best seed store… obviously they are not selling Tulip seeds… all windows are decorated with weed plants… Good for them.. instead of trying to fight it, make it legal and tax it 21% or higher…

More than anything else, what impressed me most about Amsterdam is the transportation.  I have never seen so many buses, trains, trams, bicycles in any western city.  I guess they don’t have many options.  With such narrow streets and passage ways, either you adapt or get stuck in traffic jams.  It was nice sunny day, but still a bit chilly, but everyone was on the streets.  Moms driving kids around in their limousines..(bicycle with double basket seat in front), people jogging, walking, using scooters, boats, what not…

One of the passengers dropped off at the Canal cruise.  I didn’t have time to do it this time.  Another one stepped out at the museum and was going to take a train back to airport.  I know I will get more opportunities to do some of these things in future, now that I feel a bit comfortable with the city and getting around it.

We drove back to airport on one of the few “highways” they have and back at airport by 11:30 a.m., a quick passage through immigration again and I was in the lounge by 11:45 a.m. Read though my emails, freshen up and at reached my gate by 1 p.m. and took off around 1:4o p.m.

Even though I didn’t get to see a lot, or capture some of the beautiful sigths, I enjoyed getting out into the city.  I need to pack my camera bag, and spend a full day and get to the Tulip Gardens to get a full experience of Amsterdam… City of Love.

Nope, I didn’t do anything wrong or shameful… I just realized I can’t walk without looking down in India..

I don’t get a chance to walk much during my trips to India.  On this trip, since I have been working 8-10 hours straight without stepping outside, I decided to take a quick walk for a couple of blocks and get a soda.  My driver wanted me to jump in the car.. but I thought I could use little exercise.  First, I started walking on the paved road… look at below picture to see how a typical roadside is.. paved main road and mostly uneven dirt/rocks next to it.  Very few roads have paved sidewalks.

First, I started walking on the main paved road and realized that I was about to be run over by Buses/Auto Rickshaws and/or bikes.  With paved road being so narrow, there isn’t much room for pedestrians (who don’t have right of way) to walk on it too… since I was walking against traffic, I was able to jump to the side of the road… I think I even heard “Intlo Cheppi Vachava?” (in Telugu), which meant, “Did you tell anyone in your house where you are going?”…  a famous sarcastic saying for people walking/driving recklessly.

Then I started walking on the side of the road on the dirt part, got a call and as I was looking at phone, I hit a rock on the road and almost tripped… since the side of the road is uneven, you really have to watch every step you take.. So after a couple of more near wipe outs.. I started walking “slow” and in little steps and I am sure people thought I was walking drunk or something.

In summary, I realized walking on busy streets in India is no longer safe for me… I have a lot of employees and can’t take risk of walking and crossing busy roads and called my driver to take me back to office… sad but true…

I can’t walk in the country I was born and lived for 22 years..  holding my head high… since I have to watch each step I take 🙂

PS: For all my expressed experiences in India… I want everyone to know, I am not complaining, it is way of life and it not “normal” for me anymore.

If you had the patience to read through Part 1, you may need more patience this time too… If you haven’t read part 1 yet… please read it here.

12 1/2 into the trip… Amsterdam Schipol airport, April 3rd.

I have been through this airport about 20 times now, so know exactly where to go and what to do… Arrived at Gate E17 and checked into Foursquare again and started my 10 min walk to the KLM lounge.  I just read an article that Amsterdam airport is now rated as world’s 3rd best airport.. I can see why.  This early in morning, more than half businesses are open, people arriving and fresh set of employees in Blue (KLM) directing people.  Arrived at KLM lounge, setup shop and read through all my emails, played a couple of games, freshened up a bit, but still 4+ hours to go.  Decided to rest in the “Relaxation Room”… dark, quite and long chairs to rest.. no talking or food.  Couldn’t get real sleep in, but about an hour into it, a couple of guys open the door and start chattering in some asian language from what I could gather, they are trying to figure out what this is… so I had to get up and “shhh!!” them… for myself and others in there… they realized it was sleeping room and closed the door.

I decided to get up now, freshen up again and start walking toward gate and enquire about the tour of the city for return trip (I have 6 hrs coming back).  It is a 3 hour tour and looks like I will be able to do it for sure.  Walking through Schipol, you will hear these 2 announcement over and over again… if you ever go through there… one is “mind your step..” on every moving sidewalk towards the end… similar to what we hear in US about “moving side walk is ending”… second one is “So and So… immediate boarding please, you delaying the flight, we will proceed to off load your baggage”… both in distinct accent.. that I can recall even before getting to the airport.

I noticed tmy flight said “boarding” on the departures board (still 1 hr+ to go), so started walking towards it, reached there and got through security (they ask you all kind of questions again…) to only see that they haven’t.  Started boarding at 9:45 a.m… here we go.

Flight #3: Delta Flight # 50, Airbus A330-200, Tail Number N855NW. Airbus 330-200 is slightly different – 4 rows of business class before the door, 2 after, and then Economy.  I am in 5H – and immediately realized that it is a heavy traffic seat since everyone has to pass you.. I was regretting my decision, but the seat next to me was empty… so let’s see.  Then a few minute later the bursur comes to me and asks if I would like to move to 1 A or 1 B.. I asked if there anybody else in the row? he said no, it is open.. so picked up my stuff and moved to 1 A… This is much better… 1st one to be served, no body next to me, and quiter.  We push back about 20 minutes late, but pilot assured that we will be arriving on time.

So same routine… nuts, drinks, lunch, movie… this time I watched “This is 40″… had some funny bits, but was too close to reality 🙂  Slept for almost 5 hours on this flight too. Woke up half an hour before landing.. filled out the immigration paperwork, switched out SIM card in one my phones to the India number, had another drink and passed over the meal service.. I  know in a couple of hours I am going to get some home made Indian food, so no more airplane food for me.  After all these hours, you are ready to back on the ground…. after a couple of loops around airport, we landed at 11 p.m. local time in India at Mumbai.. and at the gate by 11:15 p.m. – 5 minutes past our scheduled arrival time.  It is now 29 1/2 since I left home…

Getting out of Mumbai Airport… Always a challenge.  11 p.m. is like peak rush hour at Mumbai… all international flight arriving around same time… people running to get through the immigration lines… Luckily I was able to get into the line for PIO (Person of Indian Origin card Holder) and Foreign Citizens… Quickly out of immigration… made my duty free purchases and started the wait for my 3 suitcases.  Here I never seen any rhyme or reason… Priority Tags get you no where… I had bags come in early, late and never… so dug in for the long haul… this is a crowded area about half the size of our normal baggage belts with 250 people and 500+ suitcases.. watch out “toes”… 5 mins in, I see my first.. then second and what? third too?  Nice… got them all and I am out of here… well not quite…  I have to go through customs.

India is known for its bribes and corruption and it it everywhere… if you try to fight it, you don’t get anywhere… so I learned to live with it.  I have a projector for office, about 3 iPhones and bunch of small stuff… if I go through customs, they will try to make me pay an import fee of let’s say $200.  But I have to open each and every thing and could be an hour.  One of the “porters” asks me if I need help… in this case “help” means getting through quick… I said yes, he gets me through with a nod from one of the officers for $150.  He says he has to split with a lot of people.. for me, it is a known evil… and by me pointing it out, not going to rattle ranks and create a national debate… So I got out of airport with hundreds of people waiting outside and it is close to midnight now and it is 90 degrees and humid… yes, it is peak summer time in India.

I met up with my childhood friend Subbu, who now has the obligation of picking me up and dropping me off from/to airport every time.  It is not so bad for him, since I bring him their much needed supplies from US and they come to US for vacations and I plan all their travel.  It is a fair trade (I think)… There are no connecting flights to Hyderabad till morning and I really don’t want to spend 6 hours in airport.. We reach his house and start catching up on things, about their May trip, work, over late dinner (12:30 p.m) and drinks.  Finally went to bed 2 a.m. local time… it is 1:30 p.m. in Arizona, so I am really not that sleepy. But sleeping on a flat surface after 33 hours sure feels good and I dozed off….

The final stretch: Got up around 7 a.m. at this stage, you are really antsy to get to your destination.  I want to get home, see my Niece’s new baby, start work, etc.  My flight is at 10:10 a.m. decided to take a later flight so we don’t have to hurry in the morning.  Learned that my friend is also leaving for New Delhi at 10:30 a.m. so we both going to leave for airport around 8:45 a.m. – he lives only 10-15 minutes from the domestic airport  (same airport terminal on opposite end).   Arrived at Mumbai domestic airport around 9:10 a.m. – I requested an upgrade with Jet Airways, the biggest Private Indian Airlines using my miles and it did get confirmed, nice.  Went for check-in, knowing that I have to pay excess baggage fees.  I shed about 20 lbs at Subbu’s house and rearranged the 3rd suitcase to be a carry on with  almost 30 lbs… and still weighed in at 120 lbs.  In India they charge by the Kilo (120 lbs = 55 kilos).  The allowance for 1st class is 30 kgs.  So I have to pay $4 per kilo over the limit – so close to $120.  The ticket actually costed me $100… Had to go to another counter, pay the fees, come back and get my boarding pass.  Subbu and I made it through security quickly and at gate by 9:30 a.m. – ready to board last flight.

Flight #4: Jet Airways Flight #7017, Boing 737-800, Tail Number: VT-SIZ.  Boarded the flight and and settled into seat 2D.  This plane has only 2 rows in First Class, one of those old Air Sahara fleet Jet Airways bought.  I was in Aisle and the passenger next me showed up late and I kind of recognized him.  He is Mohan Babu, a famous Telugu movie artist who appeared in more than 550 films.   I didn’t want to pester him, but he started the conversation asking me where I was from, and then we had a nice conversation during the one and half hour flight.  Between him dozing on and off, finally got the opportunity to snap a couple of photos on my Phone.  I am surprised that he was so down to earth (at least with me).  I complimented on his stone studded Breitling watch and he said he didn’t know what kind it was, and was a gift from his son Vishnu (who is also a movie star).  I told him his son did “WELL”…

Finally landed in Hyderabad at 11:30 a.m. local time (41 1/2 hrs since left home), by the time I got my bags and got outside to meet my dad and our driver and another employee from office… it was close to noon.  The ride from Airport to our house is about another hour weaving through the traffic of India…

Arrived at my parents/sister’s house at 1 p.m. local time – exactly 43 hours since I left my house in Scottsdale… went to my sister’s place on ground floor first to see my niece’s one month old girl and then eventually upstairs to see my mom… bit exhausted, but glad to make it to my destination.  After unloading suitcases, quick lunch… I left for office in an hour and worked till 11 p.m. that day 🙂

So, there it is… my typical one way journey to India.  There are other ways to get there quicker, but not with the perks of upgrades.  Now that I have been doing this 3-4 times a year, over the last 5 years, it has become a routine and when I started documenting it, I feel more tired than the actual journey itself…

Thanks for making it through both parts (if you actually did).  Next up 6 hours in Amsterdam on my way back home in a few days.

This blog is not “travel” related, well may be a little bit…

It is a big adjustment when you grow up talking one language and all of a sudden have to switch to a different language for most of your communication.  Growing up in India, we used to talk in Telugu, my mother tongue. In school we had to learn English as second language and Hindi (India’s national language) as 3rd language.  We had at least a bit of practice in Hindi, but I never had a “Full” conversation in english until I left India in 1990 to come to US.

Not that I am perfect at it, but now I am able to manage 95% of my communication in English and starting to get rusty in reading and remember words in my mother tongue.  You know you MADE the transition when you start dreaming in ENGLISH 🙂

Well, even though we learned english as a language in school, it was mostly British, and formal.  Everything is full sentences and proper.. so no wonder in the beginning people could never understand me.. not to mention the heavy accent that comes with it.

Here are a few things you had to get used to:

1.  “Z” is pronounced as ZED in India and it is Zee in US.  Now I am so used to it, I pronounce it as Zee and some of the guys in India write down “G”.

2.  Color used to be Colour, Check used to be Cheque, etc.  I guess we don’t want too many letters around here…

3.  The toughest part of it all is the “Slang” – when you don’t grow up speaking the language, I guess you never know some of these words/phrases.

It started back in 1994 when Lesli asked me to go “run this off” … I was like, run it to where?  She meant she wanted a copy of the paper she was showing me.  I still can’t figure why it is called “running it” off? Oh well….

Why are we so obsessed with the word “Jump”?… I am going to jump in to the shower, Jump in to my car… even today a guy on phone saying … “I am about to Jump on a plane, I will talk to you later”… how come they are all JUMPING?  I looked up “jump” on dictionary.com – it says:

Jump (v): to spring clear of the ground or other support by a sudden muscular effort; leap: to jump into the air;to jump out a window.

I know it had a few more meanings.. but this is the meaning I remember growing up… so I always imagine people really JUMPING into bath tub or open the car door and spring themselves into driver seat… well I am going to jump to my next word 🙂

Then, there are these “phrases” people use… I don’t think anyone can really explain the true origin, but they get what it means.

“You can wait till the cows come home“… why?  Cows take a long time to come home? Don’t they want to make it home before night? so does it mean, late night?? so I had to look it up 🙂

One of my colleagues used to say “chaps my hide“… I figured it meant it is irritating him, so looked it up to find out its origination is from people riding horses… chaps their asses….

“Well he is not the brightest duck in the pond“… hmm.. there are bright ducks and dumb ducks in the pond?  Can we figure out their IQ or the one that gets shot first, is the dumb one??

Here are some more from Lesli that now made them part of my vocabulary…

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig… what the heck? What is jiggety-jig? Sounds cool to say it though.

Scoop the loop – I guess it is a Storm Lake, Iowa thing to circle the road around the lake… no idea if anyone else will get it or say it.

Cherries in Rearview Mirror – what? Cherry fruit hanging on the car rearview mirror?… wait you mean the cops red lights flashing that you see in your rearview mirror?

I can go on.. but you get the whiff.. know what im sayin’?

It is going to be a learning experience for rest of my life.. to keep up with this, and I like it… now I am GOING to JUMP out of my seat on the plane and go to restroom…

Later gators… (everybody is a Gator?? I didn’t know that).