http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3VWMRQO3MQ* *

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQtqsYm5og* *

Tomorrow PM will be inaugurating India Corporate Week’2010. Today I attended the rehearsal of the event where the 32 minutes was played out thrice.

The secy is a egoistic person (he wanted his wife – a no govt person to sit with him on the stage, which was of course rejected by the PMO) and he continued to change speech and announcements to pamper his ego unashamedly.

We planned to leave at 2 and reach India Gate at about 3. Then we’ll spend 2 hours there and then will return. The planning reveals that I have forgotten the first rule of travel – double the time.

We could start only at 2.30; the taxi came only at that time. We reached within an hour. Piyo started sleeping as we were approaching India Gate. I was telling Rani that we may not be able to carry Piyo and enjoy roaming around. So we may have to leave early. How little I know of kids? Soon after we started walking and as soon as Piyo heard the noise of the crowd he woke up and wanted to walk. We bought a ‘punchu mittai’ (no points even if you guessed correctly who demanded it). We were engrossed with how Piyo was walking around that we completely forgot that Air Force band was playing there; and there was ‘amar joyti’. We were only enjoying Piyo walking around.

Then we started walking on the Raj Path towards Presidential Palace. The lawns were well cut and maintained (can’t discount the fact that Republic day is just a month away and so these lawns may have gotten a face lift). We spent a lot of time playing in the lawns at the far end of Raj Path since there was absolutely no crowd (we were as if it was our back yard). You could see the video and see how much Piyo enjoyed too. By then we realized we crossed the 4 hour timelimit. So we called the driver and increased to 8 hours. After dusk, we wanted to go to ‘Saravana Bawan’ fir dinner, but it was so crowded so we went into McDonalds near-by. As like in KFC, Pito enjoed the food – especially finger chips. We returned home at about 8.30.

If you are still wondering, if we will take future trips, how can I answer that?

Not just he is playing with the ball. Look at the background – it is the parliament and President’s Palace.

It has been almost two years in Delhi and we haven’t visited any place here in Delhi or around. Rani has been wanting to visit Taj Mahal. In the first year she was pregnant & this year Piyo has been too little to take him out. Also from April to September it has been extremely hot. We decided that we’ll visit India Gate today as a precursor to other trips. I have booked a cab which is supposed to pick us at 2 pm (I’m typing this at 1). Further trips will depend how this one goes.

The joint secy here is travelling to Harvard tmrw. I saw him cleaning up his pending activities, buying suits & discussing travel plans. I miss that excitement. It has been almost 4 years since I travelled abroad. And it doesn’t look like I will travel any time soon.

And Rani & I were talking and I realized the last 5 years have gone so fast. All events are so fresh – car purchase, pondicherry trip, trip to Bangalore, my iGate experiences, drive to Tuticorin, trip to Canada, coming to Delhi and not forgetting the excitement of Piyo’s birth. Last 5 years have been good; and compared to previous 7 years, it has been just fantastic.

If it was Sam Pirotrda yesterday, today I met with spl protection group of PM. The ministry is hosting a program on 14th which PM is attending. So we went through an elobrate security procedure to ensure everything is in place. We went through minute by minute details of the program and got security clearance. They will take possession of the venue 24 hrs before the program and so even for reharsal we have to get passes. They were keen to know the type of people invited, how many of these, who will approach the PM (these people, if not minister & secretary, have to get a special pass called proximity passes), when they will approach and so on. The ministry wanted mikes to be placed in the audience and it was refused for security fear – mikes can be thrown on the PM! In all it was a good experience about holding high level functions.

He pioneered the telecom revolution in India. And as a member if planning commission & advisor to to the Prime Minister, he is one of the most powerful & influential persons in India.

Today I met him along with 4 of my collegues. He is simple & straight to the point. But I thought he also suffered from consultants disease of telling you the time after getting your watch. Tea served wasn’t good (very diluted), but biscuits were good.

Current posting has enabled me to meet with intellectuals and some crooks of the country. Good experience.

Sent from my iPod