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Showing posts from January, 2008

In Dubai…

It is 8.30am local time in Dubai on the 24th of January 2008. My flight from London reached Dubai at 6.30am. It was still dark in Dubai so I could not see the structures below clearly. I was wondering if I would be able to see the palm tree and world map structures. But I did see a ship dumping sand probably to make more of these fascinating structures. We took a bus from our plane to the terminal as the new terminal is under construction. The airport seemed more crowded than Heathrow. I managed to get a calling card and called dad letting him know that my arrival in Bombay would be on time. This flight to Mumbai will be short one around 3 hours. So I am almost there :-) As for the previous flight, the emirates service was exemplary and so were the air-hostess ;-) The dinner was really nice and the entertainment system was amazing. The only problem I felt was the seats seemed a little uncomfortable. I did not sleep on the flight at all. I chatted on and off with a lady next to ...

In the Land of the Queen…

I reached London around 1 hour ago. Flight was comfortable and empty. I had no one next to me on the flight so I could spread myself and get a nice sleep for a few hours - around 4-5 hours. Since I did not have any one next to me, I have no interesting conversations to report this time. Food was ok – Dinner and Breakfast. The entertainment system was real bad and did not work well. I watched the, starting of rush hour 3, middle part of transformers and end of the Simpsons movie. There was supposedly some glitch in their new system. The highlight of the flight was the landing in London’s Heathrow Airport. The weather is cloudy here. As my Boeing 777 broke through the clouds, the most amazing sight appeared. Below me was London city with its Victorian style houses and lush green gardens. I saw a few football grounds, cricket pitches and I saw a stadium too, but could not tell to which London football club it belonged to. I realized that the cars were on the right side of the roa...

First Stop -- Chicago!

After an hour long delay in Phoenix where I was sitting in the plane due to snow storm in Chicago, I reached O’Hare Airport around 30 minutes ago at 8.55pm local time. The flight was uneventful except that my cabin luggage just fit into the overhead storage of the McDonald Douglas S80. I do not know what I would done if it had not. I met a person (do not know his name) who sitting next to me. We did not converse for the first half. He was listening to music and I was reading. After the drinks were served, I tried to break the ice by asking him if he was from Chicago and thus started a nice conversation. He was management guy with a company which makes manufacturing tools. Our conversation ranged from his company, Boeing 787 (he knew a lot about aircraft manufacturing) , the financial market (he was an accountant by education), his fondness to golf and of course the Chicago Cubs. Alighting from the plane, I called my friends in Phoenix and parents in India and made sure that I called Ni...

1280 days hence…..

I am writing this note from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport awaiting my flight to Chicago from where I will take flights back home to Bombay. Yipeee! I have been dreaming of this day for 3 ½ years now, since I came to ASU for do my masters’. Now, after a masters’, an internship and my first job, I can go back home to see my mom, pop and joo – my family. I cannot easily describe what I am feeling now. There is a real sense of excitement but there is also some apprehension about going back home. I have changed a lot in past 3 years and India has too. I just hope that I am still the same old venkat to my family that left India with big, ambitious and silly dreams. Everybody is real excited to see me in India and I am too. I think it has still not sunk in yet that I am actually going back home. It just feels like a dream. Like any other air trips have taken in the US in the past. But I am sure it will start sinking in when I board my flight from Chicago to London. I will blog again at O...

Have to be a genius to read "The World of my Own"?

Blog Readability Test : I found this link from my friend, Max's PseudoForce blog . I do not know how it works. The way this works is that you input the URL for your blog or Webpage ( it even works for a MySpace page) and it tell you the readability of the page. This is how "The World of my Own" fared: Surprised? I was too. I do not have any rocket science on my blog nor does it have a great design. I cannot write a simple code for God's sakes. I do know what it means, but I think it is pretty cool. What do you guys say?