Sitting in the hot and humid air of Ampang, there's nothing better I can do right now than write this blog before we're driven to the dinner at Vik's house. The day started early today after a very late night at Zouk yesterday. The tireless bargaining at Patalan Street, the Palika Bazaar of Kuala Lumpur, is now finally showing up on my face even though I managed to squeeze in a healthy 50 minutes of rest, while Nivas was busy discussing Chennai's filthy river with Vish's dad. As my eyes started to shut, the noises were fading fast. By the time I could barely hear Nivas in the background, the discussion had changed to the teachings of Vivekananda-I think! Before I could even initiate a date with the Malay beauty I saw in Zouk the night before, I was woken up by some wild shouts as if a tamil villain was trying to get my attention. "Get Up!!!!", the voice said...repeatedly. With great anger and discomfort, I tried to see through the corner of my left eye. There it was! The huge dark body of mass stood across the room...topless, as if he just got over with a strip show at Soho. Sigh...the last thing you want to see after waking up is a topless Nivas. My dreams were shattered to pieces within a second and the only thing I could do was to unsuccessfully contemplate various endings to my virtual date with the girl in black!!
Anyway more about the Malaysian experiences later, first let me rewind the clocks slightly. A lot has happened since the last blog and I'm into the 3rd week of my holiday now. So far it's been quite relaxing and I'm dreading the return to office in a week or so. I had to attend one of the MSc modules the week I left UK. Having a crucial phase 1 design meeting and flight to India in the same week didn't help the matters either. Regardless of that I managed to squeeze in 3 days of sleepy lectures on the banks of Thames. By tuesday, fluid mechanics was already getting boring and the official meeting in London on wednesday was a welcome change to be honest. The day went fantastically well and missing a day of lectures was a nominal price to pay for keeping your project team happy. Evening was booked for Bluewater shopping centre and my final packing. Being one of Europe's leading shopping malls and located at a stone's throw from my hotel, it was an easy choice for doing all the shopping in one go for my nieces and rest of the family. Thursday was a much more interesting day with a renowned consultant in the oil & gas industry making our brains think and come up with answers, instead of just spoon-feeding us the most boring fundamentals of fluid mechanics. I ended my day prematurely during the coffee break and sneaked out of the class early to avoid getting stuck in the terrible M1 traffic...bet my ass I was excited about the long holiday. Majority of the people were still slogging their asses in the London offices when I left and the drive to Coventry was pretty much smooth. Still time was not on my side and I had to quickly drop my car at uncle's place and rush to the Birmingham airport.
Check-in at the airport was done in no time and I stood there wondering why Heathrow can't be like that. But I guess when you have more than quarter of a million customers using the airport everyday, you really have a bit of an excuse. Hopefully when state-of-the-art Terminal 5 is unveiled in 2008, the passenger congestion at the security gates and general mayhem you find these days at all Heathrow terminals would be alleviated to some extent…though staff's pay is an issue which still needs consideration and fast! Anyway, Emirates took off right on time as usual. The beautiful in-flight crew were as efficient as anybody would expect them to be and the food absolutely mouth-watering. Even the quick lamb curry at Coventry couldn't stop me from trying the yummy chicken in the flight and the cheesecake was second to none. I watched some animation in 'Cars', then put some chillout music on and tried getting a nap. Unsurprisingly I failed miserably in that endeavor and the hectic week was showing up proudly on my face. Regardless the flight went fantastically well and before I realised it, the Airbus had commenced its descent to the paradise which is called Dubai!
No matter how brave I might be on the football field or with what ease I pick up fights with pakis inside clubs...but when it comes to visas, trust me I shit in my pants. It was exactly 5 yrs ago when I had first applied for the tourist visa to the USA. Rohit and I were the unfortunate ones to be immediately declined and all the supporting documents ruthlessly sent back to us by special delivery. Though both of us were the unlucky ones, I was the only idiot to apply again in UK. The astonishing destruction of the World Trade Centre was hardly 2 months old and the American intelligence had taken those attacks as a tight slap on their face, not to forget the loss of thousands of innocent lives that occurred as a consequence. The government had to prove a point and they did it by blindly rejecting visas of the innocent like us, even before they decided to bomb the guts out of Afghanistan. Though 2 visa rejections would break any other god damn person in this world, I tried to be smart yet again and re-apply in Delhi on the 3rd occasion. It turned out to be a bummer and I was sent back from Chanakyapuri with the declined passport in my hands. Few thousand bucks worth of application fees down the drain and a useless 3rd stamp from the American Embassy - it was the same story again and it became clear to me that it wasn't to be in this lifetime! To send my confidence levels even lower, on a separate occasion my application for the Schengen visa was declined at the first attempt. Though after producing extra documents I was given the go-ahead to Europe, I already knew that applying for future visas would never be a pleasant experience for me ever again.
As I was lost in my own world rehearsing possible answers for the Dubai immigration staff, a crisp middle-eastern voice abruptly interrupted my deep thoughts. "All crew prepare for landing", the pilot instructed in a smart and authoritative tone that sent the in-flight crew running for their respective seats. There were no more 50 yr old uncles socializing around in the plane or any long queues outside the tiny toilets. As the sea suddenly started to appear from beneath the clouds, a strong feeling of excitement and adventure came gushing in...I knew the holiday had officially started!
Anyway more about the Malaysian experiences later, first let me rewind the clocks slightly. A lot has happened since the last blog and I'm into the 3rd week of my holiday now. So far it's been quite relaxing and I'm dreading the return to office in a week or so. I had to attend one of the MSc modules the week I left UK. Having a crucial phase 1 design meeting and flight to India in the same week didn't help the matters either. Regardless of that I managed to squeeze in 3 days of sleepy lectures on the banks of Thames. By tuesday, fluid mechanics was already getting boring and the official meeting in London on wednesday was a welcome change to be honest. The day went fantastically well and missing a day of lectures was a nominal price to pay for keeping your project team happy. Evening was booked for Bluewater shopping centre and my final packing. Being one of Europe's leading shopping malls and located at a stone's throw from my hotel, it was an easy choice for doing all the shopping in one go for my nieces and rest of the family. Thursday was a much more interesting day with a renowned consultant in the oil & gas industry making our brains think and come up with answers, instead of just spoon-feeding us the most boring fundamentals of fluid mechanics. I ended my day prematurely during the coffee break and sneaked out of the class early to avoid getting stuck in the terrible M1 traffic...bet my ass I was excited about the long holiday. Majority of the people were still slogging their asses in the London offices when I left and the drive to Coventry was pretty much smooth. Still time was not on my side and I had to quickly drop my car at uncle's place and rush to the Birmingham airport.
Check-in at the airport was done in no time and I stood there wondering why Heathrow can't be like that. But I guess when you have more than quarter of a million customers using the airport everyday, you really have a bit of an excuse. Hopefully when state-of-the-art Terminal 5 is unveiled in 2008, the passenger congestion at the security gates and general mayhem you find these days at all Heathrow terminals would be alleviated to some extent…though staff's pay is an issue which still needs consideration and fast! Anyway, Emirates took off right on time as usual. The beautiful in-flight crew were as efficient as anybody would expect them to be and the food absolutely mouth-watering. Even the quick lamb curry at Coventry couldn't stop me from trying the yummy chicken in the flight and the cheesecake was second to none. I watched some animation in 'Cars', then put some chillout music on and tried getting a nap. Unsurprisingly I failed miserably in that endeavor and the hectic week was showing up proudly on my face. Regardless the flight went fantastically well and before I realised it, the Airbus had commenced its descent to the paradise which is called Dubai!
No matter how brave I might be on the football field or with what ease I pick up fights with pakis inside clubs...but when it comes to visas, trust me I shit in my pants. It was exactly 5 yrs ago when I had first applied for the tourist visa to the USA. Rohit and I were the unfortunate ones to be immediately declined and all the supporting documents ruthlessly sent back to us by special delivery. Though both of us were the unlucky ones, I was the only idiot to apply again in UK. The astonishing destruction of the World Trade Centre was hardly 2 months old and the American intelligence had taken those attacks as a tight slap on their face, not to forget the loss of thousands of innocent lives that occurred as a consequence. The government had to prove a point and they did it by blindly rejecting visas of the innocent like us, even before they decided to bomb the guts out of Afghanistan. Though 2 visa rejections would break any other god damn person in this world, I tried to be smart yet again and re-apply in Delhi on the 3rd occasion. It turned out to be a bummer and I was sent back from Chanakyapuri with the declined passport in my hands. Few thousand bucks worth of application fees down the drain and a useless 3rd stamp from the American Embassy - it was the same story again and it became clear to me that it wasn't to be in this lifetime! To send my confidence levels even lower, on a separate occasion my application for the Schengen visa was declined at the first attempt. Though after producing extra documents I was given the go-ahead to Europe, I already knew that applying for future visas would never be a pleasant experience for me ever again.
As I was lost in my own world rehearsing possible answers for the Dubai immigration staff, a crisp middle-eastern voice abruptly interrupted my deep thoughts. "All crew prepare for landing", the pilot instructed in a smart and authoritative tone that sent the in-flight crew running for their respective seats. There were no more 50 yr old uncles socializing around in the plane or any long queues outside the tiny toilets. As the sea suddenly started to appear from beneath the clouds, a strong feeling of excitement and adventure came gushing in...I knew the holiday had officially started!
Prior to leaving Coventry - (L2R: Aunty, Bhabhi, Uncle and Me)
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