Euro Trip -7/7/2019

I came to Germany on the premise of  helping the Indian  arm of an international company (Diconium -Volkswagen) headquartered in Stuttgart.

My flight AI 125 got delayed by one day as the Bombay - Frankfurt flight left on time and our Bangalore to Bombay flight could not catch it due to heavy monsoon in Mumbai.


The delayed flight gave me a chance to have quick visit to Gateway of India and Marine drive. The view at marine drive was soothing and at GOI building i came to know that it's the place from where the last ship of British army left Mumbai. We reached Frankfurt and left to Stuttgart by ICE bhan. Trains in Germany are punctual and have an average speed of around 200kmph also they cover entire Germany.

We reached Stuttgurt and with the help of  Mr. Ulrich Schmach from office we have managed to check in to our hotel room. We are surprised a bit to know there is no lift and the bathroom is shared. I was taken aback and requested my office, back in India to have accommodation changed.

The travel agent in India had other thoughts. He talked to hotel mentioning my name and gave many reasons to convince them for a refund and the hotel owner Danni (Female) was upset as she clearly mentioned the available facilities on website before booking. To make them  agreed for refund the agency spoke rudely of them and made her crying.They did all this, thinking she will give refund and they can book another hotel for me within the budget.  A mess all in all and i wanted to close this by adjusting in the same hotel.

I did settle down and started moving around Stuttgart and have covered TV tower, first of it's kind in the world. The view is great. Europeans are detail oriented.  On the tower i saw every village, town,city and countries visible from the view marked by distance , Just awesome.

Went to Wilhelm, huge zoo which is near by and have gone through a Amazon rain forest replica.I was inspired to have one replicated at my home back at native place. The temperature is  maintained by trees and water inside the replica which is really cool.

Went to Porsche museum and have seen the multiple models of Porsche and have clicked few pics, only discouraging thing was the ticket which is 9 euros.

Went to Mercedes Benz museum and have gone through history of auto mobile industry, originated from Stuttgart

I have much to write about German culture and history and why Europe is much advanced in technology and Asian countries more advanced in family relationships.

I cover it in my next post   Gutan Tag!

Four thoughtful years.

Its a long gap of 4 years to start with. Lot of things to reflect upon. I changed multiple companies in career and all my focus was on letting my self know that i can earn on par with passed outs of premier institutes.

Two things helped in that cause

1. India's job market was booming and is paying well to hose who have got enough technical skills.
2. More and more International companies were putting the job market on fire

O Hermit, call thou in the authentic words

Of that old hymn called SAMA; "Rise! Awake!"

Call to the man who boasts his SHASTRIC lore

From vain pedantic wranglings profitless,

Call to that foolish braggart to come forth

Out on the face of nature, this broad earth,

Send forth this call unto thy scholar band;

Together round thy sacrifice of fire

Let them all gather. So may our India,

Our ancient land unto herself return

O once again return to steadfast work,

To duty and devotion, to her trance

Of earnest meditation; let her sit

Once more unruffled, greedless, strifeless, pure,

O once again upon her lofty seat

And platform, teacher of all lands.


--Rabindranath Tagore

Living on 4500 INR

A friend of mine discussed a topic of how two individuals who left their high paying investment banking jobs and started working on India's future defining project UID. As part of UID work their job is to know how government policies can effectively reach the needy 75% of Indian population whose per capita income is 4500 INR. What these guys did is they wanted to know the life of  needy population by living it and took a decision of living on 4500 and guess where? In, Indian version of California's silicon valley, 'Bangalore'.
Their expenses are as below
Hut - 1500  Rent
Milk - 500  (16*30)
Rice - 400  (35*12)
Mobile - 300
Current Bill - 100
Vegetables - 600
Groceries - 400
Body Care- 200
Transportation - 450 (15*30)
They started living with above expenses and in a month each lost 3kg of weight though they got brilliant Idea :).They started monitoring daily expenses and are in process of understanding bottlenecks in government's distribution system.They  wish to start a NGO type organization which helps in improving Public distribution system.
The idea here is by 2020, 750 million population from BRIC countries are moving from BPL to middle class, during this mass exodus knowing what transpires people's choice in choosing a particular product and how the availability of a cheap but superior quality product can singly handedly define the market position for a company is simply unimaginable. To simply get an idea we can refer to an ubiquitous brand now a days, Apple.They may say its Job's innovation strategies that created the brand but what i got convinced with is Apple products price range vis-a-vis their Quality.Had Samsung come up with similar price range and better quality products Samsung brand could have been in the place where Apple is now. The case study is simply crystal clear in giving the truth. To know how a process/system/company will be successful, looking at it through the window wont help but living in it is sure a first step.

Last Night Total Lunar Eclipse

Since last one year i have been following celestial events.The discussions around 2012 mayan calendar end and events like Super moon in march created an interest in me.When i read an artical in TOI on june 6th on coming total lunar eclips on june 15th i made up my mind to buy a telescope.I have bought Space Probe 114 mm telescope from gnomon company on june 14th .It costed me 12.5k.I got a demo on telescope usage and a CD having information about sky.I also got a one year membership in amateur astronomer india club.Last night by 10:50 i started setting up the telescope for a view of moon and by 11:30 i am ready with setup.Moon looked like a solid white ash sphere and shining.It's a memorable view.I first used 25 mm eye piece and able to see full spherical moon.With 10 mm eye piece i am able to zoom into the craters of moon and now i am probing it's surface and felt part of moon is dim in light i thought for a while and realized it's because of lunar eclipse and remembered the reason why i am there ;).Moon is getting covered by spherical shadow gradually and at one point fully shadowed. Moon is looking like an orange spherical ball and looked the same way how sun looks at sunset.I felt lucky watching this as sky is clear.This orange ball too disappeared and there is no moon now in the sky for some time and gradually the old white spherical white ash ball is back shining as maximum it could.The total duration it lasted for is around an hour and half.

Accident today early in the morning around at 12:30 A.M.

This is the first time i was actually at the site of accident.As i am working in gurgaon and staying in noida i used use company transport. The distance is around 45 km and cab takes 1 hour 15 minutes if the driver speeds it at 80 -100 kmph. Yes the calculation is correct the traffic is the culprit.since last two months i am working in 2:30 p.m. to 12 a.m shift and i used to reach home by 1:30 in the morning.There is big toll constructed on the highway just while entering gurgaon and it is around 400 mts wide (that's huge).On an average the number of vehicals that crosse the toll are 12 /1 mt . Just after the toll after a 2 km distance the road divides into a fly over and a side pass with a iron divider of 2 feet high dividing both.When our cab is within the reach of  fly over we saw a Honda Accord trying to move to side pass with a speed of 100 kmph (may be i am assuming) had hit the beginning tip of the iron divider. The car front part got cut by iron divider in the middle to some length the rear part of car got lifted and laid on the divider upside down because of the impact.We in the cab were awestruck with whats happening before our eyes and crossed the impact site, parked the car on left side and ran to the site.It terrified me the picture before my eyes. There are three people in the car all males looks like three friends. One person laid by the side of car facing his body to the ground bleeding from head, body shaking. Another one still stuck in rear part of car with no movements bleeding. People gathered there have moved him out of the car and laid him on the road. People are saying he is DEAD.There is one more guy i observed him only after the incident gets digested to me he standing by my side of age 35 and shivering, bleeding from head.People are asking him "are there any more in the car"? he is not responding crying looking at the two people laid on th road. After 5 minutes there is huge gathering and police too.My cab mate tried dialing 108.
We decided to return back and started walking back. Here i saw two big bottles of blenders pride rolled to a distance away from the site unbroken.Lot of disturbing thoughts and a sense of insecurity in me. May be it's just a minute before the hit they are alive and after the minute is passed one of them is no more.After few hours i am fine. I felt how can i create more dependents on me by marrying, if in life everything changes in a minute.

UHG

Joined UHG gurgaon on dec 27th.No idea about the company except the information that it is a fortune 19th company in US.First day is offer acceptance day, an introduction session on all UHG businesses is also taken.The next week is  HCO(Health Care Orientation) week. Information about healthcare industry evaluation in US was given.This session i enjoyed as vinay mittel, the host did a good job.I got interest in learning about US health care.Here i decided to give AHM 250 certification.The next week a hp laptop is provided and is connected by wireless. All required softwares got installed through a batch program ran by an admin person.I can carry laptop to anywhere in the office and still be available in office communicator :).The transport system is a bit complicated as i observed.I got moved to one or another cab after every two or three days. In all i have been to around 6 cabs on the same noida - gurgaon route.I heard they are shifting office location. Hope that solves few of the transport problems.Now i am owning one application and supporting another as part of my job, in parallel KT is still going on :).