A cold week in Delhi....12th - 18th January 2015

The week started very early as it was a touring week. My flight out was at 8 am and so needed to       sacrifice my routine to catch it. My intentions was to spend two days in Mumbai and then another two at Delhi. Seeing the Whatsapp messages amongst the BIT crowd did give me shivers in anticipation of the cold at Delhi. The Jet airways flight took of on time and also landed well in schedule. Cab Tab'd my way first to Tulip and then onwards to the office. I was coming back after a period of almost 15 days. There was a dusky and a musty smell lingering in my Cabin. My new Boards - Pinup as well as the White Board were up and commissioned ( They had spent at least 2 months sitting in the corner of the room). I got busy into my routine. Soon it was time to go to the Hotel and I moved out. Tulip was a disappointment. The room was barely livable, but of course at the end of the second day I had reconciled to the size cleanliness etc. etc.

The second day too went by quite fast and so did the night, very uneventful. Morning woke up from a very disturbed sleep and booked an Uber to the airport. Landed promptly as per schedule mid morning at Delhi. Delhi looked very cold outside from the cosy confines of the aircraft, it was colder when i went out into the open. Slightly windy, overcast and foggy created an atmosphere of discomfort and a sense of being abroad in one of the cold chimes of Europe. There were people huddled up in swathes of clothing and a few smoking merrily under no smoking signages. Well Delhi looked depressing. In a few moments the car came and we drove of to Noida. The cars heaters were on a high and after sometime it became quite suffocating, on repeated pleas the driver turned the heater down. The day went be quite slowly with all its meetings lined up and every minute had me looking for warmth wherever it was offered.

Old faithful Hotel of Forbes- Classic Diplomat (Forbes had been endorsing Classic Diplomat ever since the Maruti Project began)- was where I was staying. Next day we went to Maruti and checked out our installation. Walking in the site exposed me to more cold. I did not wear a muffler ( A long strip of cloth made of wool which is wrapped around the exposed portion of the throat). I clearly longed for it as well as some cotton to partially cover my ear drums. This I think pulled my resistance down and I slowly succumbed to an attack of a virus. The flight back in the evening was the typical long haul of Delhi - Blore a 2.5 hr ordeal.

Picked up an Uber cab and we drove home. Well on a side note picked up a conversation with the Uber Driver. interesting facts came out. As per him, Uber and Ola gave a remarkable incentive which was to pick up 10 rides and Ola would give them Rs.5000 as a Bonus. Of course today the number fell down to Rs.3000. This did not matter whether the distance was long it was just have 10 Journeys. So most of the Drivers were happy to have small distances as the Bonus would be earned. Could not do any back of the envelope calculations as there did not seem to have a logic on this. Maybe will have to check this out more in detail.

Next day had me reporting back to office and also saw me starting to have a running nose. I was coming down to a Viral attack. This continued through out the day and by the time I reached home was under the impression that I would be down pretty badly. The week end came on and it quietly passed too. That was the the third week of the year.

The second week.....the newness in driving to the Office.

The second weekend of 2015 came quite swiftly.  It was a loaded week on newness. A new office, new routes to the office to be explored, the people manning this office even if they did not relate to you officially, a new driver,..... The 20 kilometere drive which needs to be undertaken at every morning and evening was quite taxing. Need to plan for utilisation of this time. Newspaper and sleep seem the only easy option. Maybe I will need to bring in my audio books and listen to them . Well will allow time to create the opportunities.

My first route I chose was a disaster. Initially embarking on the Ring Road option saw me staring at  a big pile up at the starting of the Krishnarajapuram Flyover. Immediately advised John (my new Driver) to detour vide the Metro Route thinking Indiranagar option would be good. Well it was just a leap from the frying pan into the fire. This route turned out to have more maniacs on the Road than any where else. The honking was terrible so was the two wheeler who I am sure have this high of having come from another planet. We crawled out of the chock-o-block roads and finally reached the destination - my new office, two hours later.

John came out very benignly saying that taking the route vide the Viveknagar circuit would be a far better bet. Well this was what I remember Ravi my parking slot neighbour at Mantri had also cited some months ago. Evening came and I advised John to take the route he had proposed. It was quite quite fast we came back but been at 4 PM the roads were quite sparsely populated. The week went by quite uneventfully and soon it was Friday. The exploring gene in me again re surfaced. I was ready by about 8 am , dropped Gokul at his school and started my trails to reach my office. Conveyed to John to take the Ring Road option. We gain went back to crawling and nudging. I had switched on my Tracking Device on my Mobile. By the time I reached office it was 10am clean two and we had travelled a distance of about 29 kilometres. I decided then that our old route vide Viveknagar would be the best option and not try anymore.

The newness and the excitement was wearing away and I was becoming another typical Bangalorean.  

Musings in the first week of January.......

Its the 7th of January and am in a new location....my new office at BTM Layout.

 The year started typically, fast asleep at Trivandrum, it was just another routine day, only the last digit in the year row  had become 5 instead of 4.  The marriage, I was visiting Trivandrum, went by quite inconsequentially. Of course it was an extremely meanigful day for the Bride and the Groom but for everybody else it was a day to gossip, criticise, loiter, act busy, eat drink and make merry.....at somebody's expense. On the 4th morning we had bundled into the car in a lot of befuddlement at a late hour of 6.30 am (our planned take off time wa 5.30 AM) and had a very leisurely drive back to Bangalore.

Bangalore was quite warm and  Shyama's anxiety diminished considerably about a weather change triggering off another Bronchial attack on Gokul.

I was a little tense, this was primarily because I was taking up a new office at BTM Layout and was not sure of how the whole affair will play out . My new driver John would also join on Monday . Well there was a lot of uncertainties strewn around. Monday morning I skipped my Tennis and prepared for my first day at work in Bangalore. Rahukalam was at 7.30am-9am this meant that either I leave at 7.30 am or i go late after 9am. I succumbed to the ease of going late. John my new Driver came quite promptly at 8am. We started out by around 9.15 am. Bangalore's traffic was a nightmare we crawled, bullied through, stared blankly at long waits and finally after an agonising 2 hours I reached  the office. It was a 20 kilometre ride fraught with all obstacles to slow you down.

 Mr Dwarknath met us at the reception and took us to the work place. Of course I had seen this earlier and so was not a surprise to me at all. The cabin was bare had a table which had seen definitely better days and my Chair did have the forlorn look . One worn out hand rest kept slipping down, as the screw holding it together seemed to have disappeared. I settled down quiet fast as opening your laptop was the only sign of working and requirement. Tea was served which really was good, I enjoyed it and settled down to some serious e-mail exchanges. I was at work and the world....knew it. Time speedily went by. Accomplished quite a lot of work that afternoon and by about 1.30PM was famished. My lunch was with me and I quickly made justice to it.

By afternoon I left the place (I was officially on leave on Monday too) and reached home after stops at Crossword and ICICI. The next day too was quite uneventful and spent the whole day at the office. Today came to office on time , starting at 8.15 am brought me to the office at 9.30 am. I feel an 8 AM start would be even better. Drop Gokul enroute and move on to the office. That should be my target. One very satisfying feeling was when I completed the long pending SBI insurance and the FD deposits which was growing like an uncontrolled tumor in my thoughts. The only thing pending in my "things to do" list of yonder years is the transfer of PF.

Tennis has earnestly started and have even paid my monthly fee which is a good enough incentive to be at the courts. Have to gut my old faithful racquet. Not very happy with the tennis workout need to burn a lot more calories, maybe an evening gym session needs to be started to take out all that extra fat which has been accumulating.