End of the Boston trip

Leaving Boston in a couple of hours. It's been a fruitful trip, professionally. If all goes well, which is not going pretty great so far...it would be the best that has happened to my career so far.

I am returning to India, and in the next 30 hours I will be breathing the indian air, with all the dust and pollution that I have been missing on the last couple of weeks. But I so hope I live up to everyone's expectations and the climb up the carrier ladder.

Did do a bit up sight seeing here, not much though. It's less to do with my work pressure and more because I was all on my own here and I didn't fancy going around the city on my own. No shopping either, will catch up on the shopping back in India.

Bonjour Paris

Traveling again...

This time to Boston. My first international travel ever.

I am at the Paris airport now...I have a 8 hours halt here.

The Charles De Gulle International airport is the biggest airport I have seen I'm my life...not that I have seen many.

It's huge and it's beautiful.

I see people of all nationalities here...black, French,Americans...I met one from Somalia also. They are every bit the caricatures as shown in Hollywood and sometimes Bollywood too.

The French are way too stylish, everyone is impeccably dressed in boots and well cut trousers and scarves. And many belong to that 'fashion ki maari' category.

I would reach Boston in in another 10-12 hours mostly.

Will have a lot more to fill up this space in the next few days.

Lesson one: first day at Chennai

The auto wallas in Chennai are bank robbers without a gun.

No matter how great you are at negotiations, you finally have to reply with
' I bow to thee and your might my majestic !!!'

The trip to Goa Part II - Terra Paraiso

Terra Paraiso is the name of the resort we were put up with in North Goa.

Though staying there was more of an impulsive and desperate measure. Our stay at the holiday in was planned for only three days, the original plan was to move to the North and find a good resort near the Calungute beach. But since I could hardly enjoy the Holiday inn due to the complexities that feminism brings in, we were actually contemplating to extend our stay here. Finally, almost as an impulsive decision we decided to move out, and with no access to internet, we made a few calls to makemytrip, who promptly arranged the above mentioned resort for us.

But the decision was not so bad after all.




The Terra Paraiso is situated at the heart of north Goa, hardly 2 kms from the Calungute beach, and 6-7 kms from the Aguda fort and similar distance from a few more happening beaches around. The pool was amazing and ours again was a pool facing room which worked in a lot of ways. The rooms were way more spacious than ones in the Holiday Inn and Ah!! they had a jacuzzi too, but didn't find the jacuzzi effect anything out of the world. But the service was quite okayish and food was bad. Contrary to Holiday Inn, here we seemed to be one of the oldest couples. There were a few honeymoon couples around, who used to sit in the corner with candlelights during dinner time.


Though I found those candlelight dinners very chirkoot...but considering that they were just babies compared to us, may be they couldn't afford a grand one. Okay now...who am I kidding!!! Forget grand or chirkoot, I never got to have a candle light dinner myself, and before you starting poking your finger on to Db saying 'how mean!!!', it isn't his fault...I find all this too cheesy and mushy and Db already knows that a die-hard romantic is the last thing I am.

And there were a two such couples who were here for some fun...you know, college kids who are going around and want to catch some fun together without telling their parents. How did I identify them !!!???Come'on...these are the couples who you can find everywhere in the resort, trying to get close and cosy, since this after all is their chance they spent the money for...while they address each other as 'tu', clap and hug at the drop of a hat.


Here there were many people who were as underdressed as me, but we still have a problem here. Most of the girls had a wonderful figure to show off and were at least 3-5 years younger, and 2-3 sizes down to me, so I looked like an Auntie jiski jaawni dhalti hi nahin. Okay now, Db is tired...I'll stop cribbing.

Once we hired a bike there, life became simpler and far more enjoyable thereon. We visited many of the famous beaches in the days ahead and had really great time. All the beaches were
amazingly picturesque...more on them coming up in the next post. But I am still looking for the person who said Goa is a cheap shopping place...Bangalore is far more cheaper. or may be they sell things costlier during the off season. I have just got myself a few stolls and one bag.

Trip to Goa Part I - The Holiday Inn

A trip to Goa during the off season is not a really bad idea after all.
My vacation could be called a mixed bag. Considering that me and d Db are so different on our views on how a holiday ought to be, this holiday had something for both of us. We got ample of time without office and cool our heels while the last few days of the vacation we also managed to go around the place and visit a few places.

As we reached the Madgaon station, I was starting to feel terribly disappointed. It was raining badly and also because, for a place known to be a
major tourist attraction not just in India but worldwide, the Madgaon station was smelly like an armpit. It was also Bharat Bandh on the same day, and the idea of spending 12 hours in that smelly railway station was giving me goosebumps. But thankfully Holiday Inn decided to send us the pick up cab to the resort which they had initially denied because of the bandh. As we started cutting through the narrow roads towards the resort, my disappointment level was increasing by many folds. For a place which attracts many foreign tourists through out the year, I was expecting a more commercialized place. There were no rickshaws, no petrol pumps in the radius of 20 kms around, the roads were so narrow that it would make it difficult for two buses to cross each other, the town buses looked ancient...my Grandfather's village looked so much plush compared to this. Even Db's hometown Jeypore is also much more scenic than this, if marketed properly, it would do much better than Goa.

Such an over hyped place I thought...

The first three days of our vacation was pre booked at the Holiday Inn Resort in South Goa. It was raining cats and dogs when we reached there. The resort was nice, they had an amazing pool and a private beach. Our room was very cozy and comfortable and also pool facing...it was amazing to just sit in the balcony sipping your tea and watch the pool or the sea. The food was amazing, we had the buffet b'fast, lunch and dinner included in our package and we had a great time with the food that was served to us. With the food at the resort, I found my long lost taste of homemade curd...so much so that I am actually in the process of making it at home now.

I was earlier told by my friends that I would probably look terribly overdressed in Goa, since there would be many who would hardly be wearing anything at all. But we seemed to be the youngest couple in the resort (most of them were with one or two kids, or middle aged couples or corporates who had come for conferences) and with my shorts, I looked like the most under-dressed person there. I had got hardly anything from Bangalore that could remotely match up to the sarees and salwaar kameez or the full length jeans with long kurtas that other aunties were wearing there so I remained the most under-dressed person around.
Also, I was not keeping well (the regular women stuff)...and I was not expected to keep well for the next 3 days as well...so all I could do is watch people having fun from my balcony. Though it was not as bad as it sounds, but I could still do better by jumping into the pool or the beach. Though Db got his chance to have a quiet and relaxing holiday away from office, the fact that I was not enjoying didn't give him any pleasure.

So, on the second day of our vacation, we decided to hire a bike and check out the Palolem beach. I am still looking for the person who told us that the beach is just 20 kms away, since it was almost or more than 35 kms from our resort. And as luck would have it, the seemingly bright sunny day turned into a ghastly rainy one and we drenched ourselves on the way to the beach. Worse, the beach was lonely as a desert with only filthy dogs to give us some unwanted company. Disappointed to the core, we left the place in a few minutes. But the worse was yet to be...as we were returning back in the rainy afternoon, we lost our way and got a lot more wet and frustrated than we otherwise would have been. We reached our room by evening, and eventually decided to forget the beaches and enjoy our stay in the resort by using the internal facilities given here.


At the end of three days we had the option to either stretch our stay in the same resort for the next three days or move to North Goa. We chose the second option and booked another hotel from makemytrip for another resort in North Goa, near the Calungute beach. Then was the fear for the unknown when we checked out of the Holiday Inn and booked a cab to the north.