Flying at Tower Hill

After looooooooong time, I finally had a flying day. I joined the gang of Temple Pilots and went to Tower Hill at Kamshet. It had been over an year (I couldn't believe it myself that it has been so long) that I was able to paraglide so obviously I was feeling a bit nervous. We gathered at a restaurant "rangoli" at the Kamshet phata on old Pune-Mumbai highway. Temple pilot guys had arranged a jeep to take us up to the launch and for retrieve. You go anywhere in the world the trip to launch is always in a some overcrowded SUV type vehicle where all you hear is paragliding talk. I think paragliding inherently is a solitary activity so when sharing a ride to launch or sitting around in LZ, pilots tend to over-socialize :) As we reached on the launch, the wind was coming in too strong. The launch is a wide , smooth grassy area quite big enough to top land easily. After para-waiting for about 3 hours I finally launched in a perfect straight cycle. Once in the air I felt much comfortable and all the nervousness of the new site was long gone. I had a really good low save and was back on top of the launch. I decided to practice my not so good top landing skills and came in and landed rather fast. Then soon enough I launched with another perfect launch! I was the last pilot to land in the LZ where we got picked up by the jeep and brought back to Rangoli. After a gap of 12 months, I was finally able to go out and fly . I had the silly-a-good-paragliding-day-grin on my face all the way back home! :)

Random sight on Mhatre Bridge

Random sight caught on camera while crossing mhatre bridge....No idea how all those balls are being held together.

chicago a sister city of new delhi?!

Just got back from a crazy one week trip where I visited Atlanta, Cincinnati and Chicago all in a span of five days. You can find some photos of this trip by clicking on this link. If you keep your eyes open and camera ready you always find something interesting to blog about. e.g. Did you know that Chicago is a sister city to Delhi :) Also did you know that real Chicago-ian pronounces as chicago not as sheecago but as chi-as-in-chicken-cago? I did not know it until my recent trip :)

The other new experience for me in this trip was eating at a Brazilian steak house, boi-na-braza in Cincinnati. The meat they serve in that restaurant was very delicious and I will highly recommend experiencing the Brazilian steak house at least once in your life.

it's official.....16 hour flight worse than space travel!

You won't believe who was with me on my marathon 16 hour flight from Mumbai to New York!!!! Even I didn't realize it until I saw few people asking for autographs from that person. She was standing right next to me, waiting for her bags to arrive on the conveyor belt.

She was none other than Sunita Williams, woman of Indian descent with a record of longest stay in space!!!

Many people were asking for autograph and taking a picture with her. I didn't feel like doing either of those two things. The fact that I got to personally meet her and talk to her is something I can cherish for life and I do not need a scrap of paper with her autograph to prove it...But anyways, I did want to talk to her. So I asked her which one is more difficult, sitting in the non-stop 16 hour flight from mumbai to JFK or the space travel. And to my surprise, she said that the 16 hour flight was more difficult....(maybe because we had just crawled out of our fetus position after that long flight :)) But there you have it....it is official.

Although I have to admit that it was not that boring of a flight. There were plenty of movies on my personal entertainment center. (Yes I did get my personal screen even in the economy section....thanks to cheaper electronics!!!) I was able to catch up on many bollywood movies and few of my favorite US TV serials such as Office! For the geeks reading my blogs, the entertainment system was running on Red Hat linux (last build 2004 :)) and it crashed at least 3 times which caused a plane wide reboot. I have to admit that it is very discomforting to be staring at your personal screen and see messages such as "demons starting...." pop up on it... LOL

free WI-FI internet at Mumbai airport....what a jackpot

Ok, i must admit it, it took me a while to realize this... :) As I was waiting to board my flight to JFK, I spotted a wireless router. Since all other airport wireless networks cost money, I was not interested in connecting. So quite reluctantly I chose to connect to the wireless network. Sure enough my browser got re-directed to the wireless network provider's page. But to my complete surprise, it had a FREE access. All I had to do was type in my mobile number and soon enough I received a SMS that gave me my jackpot username and password.

Admit it, you are reading my blogs to pass time and get out of boredom but this is the first time I am able to blog to pass time! So we are even now! :-D

TCS strength becomes 100000

Yesterday's (October 1st) Economic Times reports that TCS crossed the 1lakh employee mark. This means that every 12th IT person in this world will be TCS employee. (this is what the article claims) It further adds that if you count Infosys (75,000), Wipro, HCL, Cognizant and Satyam then every 6th IT person belongs to these consulting companies. Quite a feat indeed! Incidently I also learned a new acronym. The top consulting companies in India are now known as SWITCH (Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL) Now go impress your colleagues with this new tid bids of knowledge :)

This news does remind me of a PJ.
Teacher is teaching a class about population and economics. He says,
Teacher: In India, there is a woman giving birth to a child every ten seconds...
Suddenly Buntasingh stands up from back of the classroom and shouts, "We must stop that woman Sir!!" :)

(not) Looking forward to my 16 hour flight!

Last February when I flew from San Fran to Sydney, I thought I already experienced (suffered) the longest single flight! (it took over 14 hours to reach Sydney) However, as I looked into my upcoming trip itinerary, I was shocked to see a SIXTEEN hour flight! I will be flying non stop from Mumbai to Atlanta with a stop in JFK on a 16 freaking hour long flight! It is good that I will reach my final destination sooner than any other competing itinerary but I sure hope I can walk after I come out of my economy cocoon after 16 hours of flight! :)

BTW, even though I boast a VP title, does not mean that I get to travel business class :( In fact these days I find myself in the back most section of the planes, it starts with first class, then business class, then economy plus and then economy. The lavatories at least have doors on them..

Notice the total flight time, does it ring a bell? :)